When the Bubble Bursts


Book Description

A newly updated edition for the fast-changing real estate market in Canada! Over the last two decades Canadians have become convinced that real estate is the “safe haven” investment. This widely held belief and obsession with real estate led millions of Canadians to take on massive amounts of debt — tripling their collective financial burden — ensuring that Canada is one of the most indebted nations on the planet. Drawing on dozens of interviews and even more conversations with individual Canadians and couples, this second edition also tackles the economic conditions and regulatory rules that allowed such a dangerous situation to develop in Canada, formerly a nation of conservative and prudent citizens. Hilliard MacBeth argues that Canada is in the midst of an unprecedented real estate bubble and that there will soon be a crash in house prices, triggering a financial crisis. Individual Canadians and families can still take action to protect themselves from the fallout of the bubble bursting — if they act quickly.




When the Bubble Bursts


Book Description

There are common midlife events that account for the special narcissistic vulnerabilities of this period of life, and Eda Goldstein ably reviews these events and the theoretical perspectives commonly brought to bear on them. In When the Bubble Bursts, however, Goldstein's special concern is those individuals who come to midlife with heightened narcissistic vulnerabilities that make the navigation of this stage of life more difficult still. In understanding the latter such patients and devising a treatment approach appropriate to their "self" issues, Goldstein adopts a broadly self-psychological frame of reference. It is a matter, she finds again and again, of understanding how current stressors frustrate healthy self needs and trigger narcissistic vulnerabilities. Self-psychologically informed treatment, which, in Goldstein's pragmatic purview, embraces modalities that are, to varying degrees, supportive, psychodynamic, and psychoanalytic, reworks and strengthens self structures in helping patients find new ways of affirming their sense of self. Her substantive case studies, which accompany the reader through all the chapters in her study, draw on personal and supervisory experiences to illustrate crucial foci of the treatment process with a range of midlife patients in psychotherapy. Eda Goldstein presents a study that comprises an admirable blend of theoretical astuteness, clinical wisdom, and personal honesty. Her clinical study of midlife narcissistic pathology is bracketed by her balanced discussion of theoretical perspectives on adult development and her concluding consideration of the countertransference issues elicited by midlife patients in midlife therapists. When the Bubble Bursts is an edifying contribution to the literatures of psychodynamic psychotherapy, self psychology, and adult development.




Boom and Bust


Book Description

Why do stock and housing markets sometimes experience amazing booms followed by massive busts and why is this happening more and more frequently? In order to answer these questions, William Quinn and John D. Turner take us on a riveting ride through the history of financial bubbles, visiting, among other places, Paris and London in 1720, Latin America in the 1820s, Melbourne in the 1880s, New York in the 1920s, Tokyo in the 1980s, Silicon Valley in the 1990s and Shanghai in the 2000s. As they do so, they help us understand why bubbles happen, and why some have catastrophic economic, social and political consequences whilst others have actually benefited society. They reveal that bubbles start when investors and speculators react to new technology or political initiatives, showing that our ability to predict future bubbles will ultimately come down to being able to predict these sparks.




When Bubbles Burst


Book Description

Surviving the financial fallout John Calverley's new book is about understanding what's going on, how policy impinges on it, what investors can do and what is likely to happen. This extremely topical and timely new book from the well-known economist and Head of Research, Standard Chartered Bank is the first book to examine in depth the financial fallout of 2008 and explore the implications and solutions for individuals, companies and central banks. His previous book, Bubbles and How to Survive Them predicted the current financial situation. He warned vigorously of the danger from the housing bubble and warned that stock prices might take off again and reach vulnerable levels (as indeed occurred in 2006-7.) This essential readable, non-technical guide is essential reading for everyone and particularly for investment professionals everywhere. In this new book - an investor's survival kit - he: * Outlines the crises we now face and reviews how we got here. * Looks closely at the huge housing bubbles in UK and the US, as well as those in Australia, Spain, Japan and Hong Kong. * Explores the anatomy of bubbles and presents a checklist for identifying them. * Tells the story of how the housing bubble led to the current financial crisis and how far prices might fall, focusing on household debt as the value of household assets collapse. * Examines strategies for investors, who must try to avoid bubbles or, more dangerously, seek them out and ride them. * Reveals what will happen next.




Bursting the Bubble


Book Description

He was known around the world as the "Bubble Boy". Now told for the first time by the person who was his caretaker and confidant, Bursting the Bubble is the heart-rending story of the life and death of David Vetter. Due to the scientific zeal of doctors and religious authorities, and the compliance of his trusting family, he lived his life in a sterile chamber bereft of human touch from birth until a few days before his death at age 12 and a half. Mary Ada Murphy, Ph.D., was a child psychologist on staff at St. Luke's-Texas Children's Hospital throughout David Vetter's life and became his closest friend and confidant. She was with him when he died. She received the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath Award in 1985 in recognition of her outstanding achievement in the psychological support of David Vetter and his family. Raymond J. Lawrence, whom Murphy entrusted with the Bursting the Bubble manuscript and writes an introduction to it, was the hospital chaplain in place during David's early years, and who convened the only formal ethics consultation on the Vetter case.




Boombustology


Book Description

A multi-disciplinary framework through which to spot financial bubbles before they burst. Based on a popular undergraduate seminar, entitled Financial Booms & Busts, taught by the author at Yale University, Boombustology presents a multi-disciplinary framework for identifying unsustainable booms and forthcoming busts. The magnitude of our recent financial crisis mandates a firm understanding of this phenomenon before the next crisis occurs. Boombustology provides an in-depth look at several major booms and busts and offers a solid framework for thinking about future occurrences. Examines why booms and busts are not random and can therefore be identified Focuses upon various theoretical and disciplinary lenses useful in the study of booms and busts Contains a framework for thinking about and identifying forthcoming financial bubbles including several tell-tale indicators of a forthcoming bust. Illustrates the framework in action by evaluating China as a potential bubble in the making. If you want to make better decisions in today’s turbulent investment environment, understanding the dynamics of booms and busts is the best place the start. Boombustology can help you achieve this elusive goal. Vikram Mansharamani is a Lecturer at Yale University and a global equity investor.




The Carbon Bubble


Book Description

As the price of oil falls, bestselling author and economist Jeff Rubin takes us to the epicentre of the bursting global carbon bubble, and dares us to imagine a new engine for growth that does not run on oil. For a decade, the vision of Canada's future as an energy superpower has driven the country's political agenda, as well as the fast-paced development of Alberta's oil sands and the push for more pipelines like Keystone XL across the continent to bring that bitumen to market. Anyone who objects to pipelines and tanker-train traffic, north or south of the US border, is labeled a dreamer, or worse—an environmentalist: someone who puts the health of the planet ahead of the economic survival of their neighbours. In The Carbon Bubble, Jeff Rubin compellingly shows how an economic vision that rests on oil is dead wrong. Changes in energy markets in the US—where domestic production is booming while demand for oil is shrinking—are quickly turning the oil dream into an economic nightmare. Like U.S. coal stocks, the share values of oil-sands producers have been drastically reduced by falling fuel prices and are increasingly exposed to the world's efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Rubin argues that there is a lifeline to a better future. The very climate change that will leave much of the country's carbon unburnable could at the same time make some of Canada's other resource assets more valuable: its water and its land. In tomorrow's economy, he argues, Canada won't be an energy superpower, but it has the makings of one of the world's great breadbaskets, as everything from the corn belt to viniculture heads to higher latitudes. And in the global climate that the world's carbon emissions are inexorably creating, growing food will soon be a lot more valuable than mining bitumen.




Bubbles and Crashes


Book Description

“An interesting take on some factors that facilitate the development and bursting of bubbles in technology industries. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice Financial market bubbles are recurring, often painful, reminders of the costs and benefits of capitalism. While many books have studied financial manias and crises, most fail to compare times of turmoil with times of stability. In Bubbles and Crashes, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch give us new insights into the causes of speculative booms and busts. They identify a class of assets—major technological innovations—that can, but does not necessarily, produce bubbles. This methodological twist is essential: Only by comparing similar events that sometimes lead to booms and busts can we ascertain the root causes of bubbles. Using a sample of eighty-eight technologies spanning 150 years, Goldfarb and Kirsch find that four factors play a key role in these episodes: the degree of uncertainty surrounding a particular innovation; the attentive presence of novice investors; the opportunity to directly invest in companies that specialize in the technology; and whether or not a technology is a good protagonist in a narrative. Goldfarb and Kirsch consider the implications of their analysis for technology bubbles that may be in the works today, offer tools for investors to identify whether a bubble is happening, and propose policy measures that may mitigate the risks associated with future speculative episodes.




Burst This!


Book Description

Frank McKinney continues his international bestseller tradition of delivering contrarian perspectives and strategies for generational success in real estate. Tired of all the doom and gloom? Frank McKinney helps you wash away the worry—the anxiety financial theorists and misguided media constantly dump into the real-estate marketplace. During his twenty-five-year career, this 'real estate rock czar' (The Wall Street Journal) and undisputed 'king of the ready-made dream homes' (USA Today) has not only survived but thrived through all economic conditions by taking the contrarian position and making his own markets. Burst This! Frank McKinney's Bubble-Proof Real Estate Strategies clearly shows you how to prepare for and time the upswings while insulating your real estate investments from the inherent, inevitable corrective cycle. The truth is that opportunities to profit abound during every phase. Lots of people prosper in boom times, of course, but many set themselves up to make even bigger money during a crisis/correction. Why not do both, now? Investors of all experience levels learn to turn the bubble mentality inside out, transforming it into a protective force field and a crystal ball, allowing you to accurately forecast your real estate future. You will see how you can aspire not just to survival, but also to what McKinney calls "thrival," developing your ability to capitalize on market conditions. McKinney takes you on a factual real estate retrospective, a "post mortem" of the housing markets, beginning with the mid-seventies to today. By studying six distinct real estate cycles over the last thirty-five years, he sifts out critical, recurring trends that highlight significant opportunities while signaling you where history might repeat itself. You will see exactly how McKinney has successfully handled these predictable cycles with timeless financial and investment strategies. • Hear a resounding counter-opinion to the doomsayers and the get-rich-quick schemers who crawl out of the cesspool whenever the market's pendulum swings too far in one direction--and guard against falling into their traps. • Discover why the positive and negative excitement (a.k.a. greed and fear) associated with boom and bust times are your worst enemies, brought out by nothing more than recurring market cycles. • Get the evidentiary truth, not the fear-mongering or the sugar-coating, on real-estate's ups and downs. • Pinpoint the real-estate investments, and a proven approach to marketing them, that have consistently shown immunity to the market's volatile fluctuations.




Dot.con


Book Description

This is a sceptical history of the internet/stock market boom. John Cassidy argues that what we have just witnessed wasn't simply a stock market bubble; it was a social and cultural phenomenon driven by broad historical forces. Cassidy explains how these forces combined to produce the buying hysteria that drove the prices of loss-making companies into the stratosphere. Much has been made of Alan Greenspan's phrase irrational exuberance, but Cassidy shows that there was nothing irrational about what happened. The people involved - fund managers, stock analysts, journalists and pundits - were simply acting in their own self-interest.