As talk of a real-estate bubble grows louder, difficult choices abound: How can you protect yourself and possibly even profit from what lies ahead? To advise some hypothetical New Yorkers, we assembled a panel of experts: Frederick Peters, president of real-estate brokerage Warburg Realty; John Vessa, a financial consultant with Smith Barney’s Harbor Group; and Suze Orman, personal-finance doyenne, CNBC host, and author of The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke.

Be not afraid: The psychic benefits of participating in class-action lawsuits outweigh their tawdriness.

The trickle-down effect of ridiculous, ostentatious wealth.

Never mind hedge funds. Wilbur Ross gets rich the unfashionable way—in steel plants, textile mills, and other stuff nobody wants.

Super-low interest rates made us brave spenders, hid the recession, and even helped keep political peace. But good-bye to all that.

Will the alliance between TiVo and Netflix, those perfect aids to New York life, help them avoid the fate of Kozmo.com?