In 2011 the "Occupy movement" spread from New York to a number of cities across North America to protest the uneven income distribution. In Vancouver one of the key issues was the high cost of owning or renting a home (Vancouver has some of the highest house prices in the world). One of the protesters said "In Vancouver, housing is a commodity, not just any commodity but the most speculated commodity in the city and it's causing people to lose their homes."
a) A speculator is some one who (usually) buys a product today and sells it sometime in the future. No modern economy exists without market speculation. What is the economic role of a speculator?
b) Given your answer in (a), in what sense would speculation cause "people to lose their homes?" Is this what we normally consider "losing your home?"
c) Given your answer in (b), would these new "homeless" people be better or worse off compared to their situation before the speculators arrived? Briefly explain.