Is the bull market about to turn into a bubble?
Share prices are surging. Investors are delighted—but also nervous
Two years ago, pretty much everyone agreed that one of the great bubbles was bursting. An era of rock-bottom interest rates was coming to a close, shaking the foundations of just about every asset class. Share prices were plunging, government bonds were being hammered, crypto markets were in freefall. Wall Street’s prophets of doom were crowing with delight. The consensus of the previous decade—that inflation was dead and cheap money here to stay—looked as ludicrous as the groupthink of any previous financial mania. Thus the pendulum was about to swing: from exuberance to scepticism, risk-taking to cash-hoarding and greed to fear. It would take a long time to swing back.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “From bull market to bubble?”
Finance & economics March 16th 2024
- Is the bull market about to turn into a bubble?
- China’s economic bright spots provide a warning
- China is churning out solar panels—and upsetting sand markets
- Saudi Arabia’s investment fund has been set an impossible task
- The private-equity industry has a cash problem
- Russia’s economy once again defies the doomsayers
- How NIMBYs increase carbon emissions
More from Finance & economics
China meets its official growth target. Not everyone is convinced
For one thing, 2024 saw the second-weakest rise in nominal GDP since the 1970s
Ethiopia gets a stockmarket. Now it just needs some firms to list
The country is no longer the most populous without a bourse
Are big cities overrated?
New economic research suggests so
Why catastrophe bonds are failing to cover disaster damage
The innovative form of insurance is reaching its limits
“The Traitors”, a reality TV show, offers a useful economics lesson
It is a finite, sequential, incomplete information game
Will Donald Trump unleash Wall Street?
Bankers have plenty of reason to be hopeful