Economic indicators and financial markets go up, and they go down. Sometimes they get really big, and then they collapse. What is the latest bubble? Perhaps.. the fear of bubbles itself.

Despite not suffering any actual bubble collapses in the past five years, we have, in that time, already passed through the real estate bubble, the stock market bubble, and the "backlash against the idiots who think there's a bubble" bubble. (All of these bubbles should be understood as existing purely in the mind of the public and/ or the alarmist media, which is what makes them fun.) Now, having transcended the "fuck the bubble talk" bubble, we have now passed into the realm of the "everyone is so nervous about a bubble" bubble. Bloomberg reports on the current atmosphere of "bubble paranoia":

Two years of uninterrupted gains in U.S. stocks are sowing anxiety among financial professionals, with three in five saying the market is on the verge of a bubble or already in one, the Bloomberg Global Poll found.

Forty-seven percent of those surveyed said the equity market is close to unsustainable levels while 14 percent already saw a bubble, according to a quarterly poll of 562 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers.

Greed.... PARANOIA.... Greed... PARANAOIA.... Which will ultimately triumph?

Probably both in turn lol.

Other bubble candidates this week: UK housing, the Seattle minimum wage, and the universe at large.

[Photo: Flickr]