It's called forewarning

Looking at Japan's housing bubble in the 90s, there were similarities we should have seen in our own housing market, including over-speculation that would eventually bottom out the general economy. Unfortunately, the final paragraph in a 2005 WSJ article on the Japanese property bubble (see below) regarding a similar phenomenon in the U.S. housing market has proved all too prophetic:

"Still, even assuming U.S. authorities avoid Japan’s mistakes, a decline in wealth from a house-price crash would hurt consumption. The effects of that could be worse in the U.S., because consumption accounts for a greater part of the economy than in Japan. U.S. consumers are also the driving force of the world economy, stoking the economies of Asia and Europe by sucking in exports."

The Japanese property bubble: Can it happen here?