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

  • Story
  • All Best and Worst Lists

12. Housing Funds

Digital Composite / Getty
  • Print

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.

View the full list for "TIME's Best Inventions of 2008"

Most Popular »

Full List »
  1. The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
  2. Female Sexual Dysfunction: Myth or Malady?
  3. New Moon Review: Team Jacob Ascending
  4. The Fall of Greg Craig
  5. Hey Ireland, Please Drop the World Cup Do-Over
  6. The Story of Barack Obama's Mother
  7. Three Key Lessons from Obama's China Tour
  8. Tuition Hikes: Protests in California and Elsewhere
  9. The Next Round of the U.S.-Iran Nuclear Face-Off
  10. It's Twilight in America: The Vampire Saga
  1. The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
  2. Female Sexual Dysfunction: Myth or Malady?
  3. Three Key Lessons from Obama's China Tour
  4. Tuition Hikes: Protests in California and Elsewhere
  5. Pap Tests: Another Revision of Recommendations
  6. The Story of Barack Obama's Mother
  7. The Fall of Greg Craig
  8. New Moon Review: Team Jacob Ascending
  9. Hey Ireland, Please Drop the World Cup Do-Over
  10. Mammogram Guidelines: What You Need to Know
  • Print

Lists by Topic

Topics

Most Popular