[Verse 1]
Let me tell you 'bout the sources that historians love to find
Real documents and data from that postwar time
House price indices show us how the market moved along
Construction rates and rent data help us sing this song
They're primary sources, artifacts so true
Telling stories of what families went through
[Chorus]
Home prices up, rent indices climb
SCF shows wealth through space and time
Primary sources never lie
They show us how and tell us why
Mortgage changes, securitization grew
These artifacts reveal what's really true
[Verse 2]
Survey of Consumer Finances, we call it SCF
Tracks American wealth from east to west
Every three years they gather data on what people own
Houses, stocks, and savings, down to every loan
This primary source maps inequality's rise
Real numbers, real people, no disguise
[Chorus]
Home prices up, rent indices climb
SCF shows wealth through space and time
Primary sources never lie
They show us how and tell us why
Mortgage changes, securitization grew
These artifacts reveal what's really true
[Bridge]
From government reports to banking files
Construction permits stacked in piles
Each document's a window to the past
Showing how prosperity couldn't last
When mortgages got bundled, sliced, and sold
These sources tell a story, bold and cold
[Verse 3]
Housing indices track the American dream
Rising faster than wages, bursting at the seams
Policy papers show how rules began to bend
As broad-based prosperity came to an end
These artifacts don't lie or tell tall tales
They show us where the system fails
[Final Chorus]
Home prices up, rent indices climb
SCF shows wealth through space and time
Primary sources light the way
Help us learn from yesterday
Read the data, trust what's true
History's lessons wait for you
[Outro]
Every chart and every graph
Shows us prosperity's epitaph
Primary sources lead us home
To truth written in data's stone