ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes between four periods: first, the pre-modern period; second, the modern or Fordist period; third, the flexible neoliberal or post-Fordist period; and, fourth, the emerging post-crisis or late neoliberal period. It argues that the Great Moderation was not so much a moderation of macroeconomic cycles as it was the start of the financialization of states and economies in numerous domains, including housing. The chapter explores periodization helps us to understand the post-World War II development of housing in different countries. It problematizes the concept of the Great Moderation. The changes in the 1970s and the start of the Great Moderation in the 1980s meant the end of the modern or Fordist period in housing structures and the beginning of the flexible neoliberal or post-Fordist period in western countries. In western countries, there is little evidence of the oft-heralded end of neoliberalism.
