TIME's Best Inventions of 2008
From a genetic testing service to an invisibility cloak to an ingenious public bike system to the world's first moving skyscraper — here are TIME's picks for the top innovations of 2008
12. Housing Funds
Want to bet against your house? It's been possible ever since the Chicago Mercantile Exchange launched house-price futures and options in 2006. But futures and options aren't investment products for the masses. So MacroMarkets, co-founded by economist Robert Shiller, plans this month to offer the first exchange-traded funds — bought and sold like stocks — that will allow buyers to bet on whether house prices will rise or fall.
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