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Home > Economic bubble


An economic bubble occurs when speculation in a commodity causes the price to increase, thus producing more speculation. The price of the good then reaches absurd levels and the bubble is usually followed by a sudden drop in prices, known as a crash.

Economic bubbles are generally considered to be bad things because they cause misallocation of resources into non-productive uses. In addition, the crash which follows an economic bubble can destroy a large amount of wealth and cause continuing economic malaise as was the case of the Great Depression in the 1930s and Japan in the 1990s.

Another important aspect of economic bubbles is their impact on spending habbits. Participants in a market with goods that are over valued e.g. the housing market in the UK, Spain spend more because they "feel" richer.

When the bubble occurs in equity markets, it is called a stock market bubble. It is usually very difficult to differentiate a stock market bubble from an ordinary bull market until it is over.

Examples of economic bubbles include:

Other goods which have produced bubbles include beanie babies and postage stampsStamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects, such as envelopes (cover)s. It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with estimates of the number of collectors ranging up to 20 million. Collecting is not the same as philate.

EconomicsEconomics is the social science studying how society uses its limited resources to meet desires and wants. Put otherwise, economics studies what, how and for whom society produces. This involves analyzing the production, distribution and consumption of go English phrases

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