A lot of bubbles over many centuries, perhaps, but without a data series how can one say it’s off? After all, we’ve hit 2 acknowledged bubbles in as many decades (notice that I don’t say ‘centuries’ or ‘half-centuries’), and there are more controversial recent ones (commodity bubble with oil or gold? ‘Green’ stocks? China?) which would push the count up even higher.
I’m not sure that one per decade is unusually many. The US had a lot of bubbles in the 19th century—canal bubbles, real estate bubbles, railroad bubbles, etc. In all these cases (as with today), there was a real innovation underneath, that bedazzled investors into funding instances of it that didn’t make sense.
A lot of bubbles over many centuries, perhaps, but without a data series how can one say it’s off? After all, we’ve hit 2 acknowledged bubbles in as many decades (notice that I don’t say ‘centuries’ or ‘half-centuries’), and there are more controversial recent ones (commodity bubble with oil or gold? ‘Green’ stocks? China?) which would push the count up even higher.
I’m not sure that one per decade is unusually many. The US had a lot of bubbles in the 19th century—canal bubbles, real estate bubbles, railroad bubbles, etc. In all these cases (as with today), there was a real innovation underneath, that bedazzled investors into funding instances of it that didn’t make sense.