The Bubble How homeowners, speculators and Wall Street dealmakers rode a wave of easy money with crippling consequences. By Alec Klein and Zachary A. Goldfarb The Washington Post Sunday, June 15, 2008; A01 Part I · Boom The black-tie party at Washington's swank Mayflower Hotel seemed a fitting celebration of the biggest American housing boom since the 1950s: filet mignon and lobster, a champagne room and hundreds of mortgage brokers, real estate agents and their customers gyrating to a Latin band. On that winter night in 2005, the company hosting the gala honored itself with an ice sculpture of its...