Bubble, Bubble, Toil & Trouble

A few weeks ago, we observed a bubble in fears of a bubble. The fearmongers see an "everything bubble" that will soon burst. The expression "the bubble in everything" began gaining traction during the tenure of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen (2014–2018), but it became widely associated with Jerome Powell's leadership and the monetary stimulus of the 2020–2021 pandemic era.

In other words, we've seen this movie play out only a few years ago. Numerous bubbles burst, but they didn't cause a financial calamity or a recession. And here we are today, with the US MSCI and many other stock markets around the world at record highs (chart). Here we are today, with US real GDP at a record high. Except for the two-month pandemic lockdown recession in early 2020, the last US recession occurred 16 years ago!