Years ago, when I was a young man, P/E ratios on stocks used to be in the 7 or 8 rang

[sparky]

perhaps the term you seek is petrocurrency Kevin....

 

[tigerbob]

perhaps the term you seek is petrocurrency Kevin....

I liked bastardized.

 

[sparky]

actually they're quite synonomous....

 

[Zoomie1980]

Free market?

No.

I don't blame bubbles on unicorns, either... since there are no unicorns just there is no, nor has there ever been, nor will ther ever be a mythical creature known as a "FREE market"

I definitely DO blame bubbles on too few people having too much disposable income to invest, while far too many people have far too little money to spend or save, though.

Now how do you suppose those conditions happened?

A simple four word answer will suffice, I hope: supply side economic policies

Bubbles are normal and will always happen. When too much money chases a fixed amount of goods or services you get bubbles. Government, rather than mitigate bubbles, often makes them bigger and the bursts, louder! Housing is a classic example of government making the bubble much bigger than it ever would have gotten without government involvement.