Walk the pitted landscape of investment debacles since the 1980s—junk bonds, derivatives, thrifts—and ponder the smoking crater left by real estate limited partnerships. Those deals let you buy an interest in a building often designed to lose money so you could report a tax loss. A lot of empty buildings sprang up as a result. After Congress removed the tax break in 1986, and the bloated property market went bust in 1989, legions of investors wound up with partnership units so troubled they could scarcely be given away.
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