irrational exuberance

 

Wall Street

I don't know if Spring came early this year, or if we're going to have more Winter. ...

Some really beautiful, nice weather has descended, where I live.  What a treat!

I notice, every year, in the first day or two of nice weather, especially if it's on a weekend day,  vehicles going by on the road, outside the window, engage in what I call "exuberant driving."

        Some cars and trucks, of course, just drive regular, but some want to zoom, and rev their engines, or get rid of their mufflers, or whatever it is they do to cause their vehicles to express themselves more loudly.

Motorcycles vibrate past, joyously.

Exuberantly.

        And when I think of the word "exuberant," I remember the economist Alan Greenspan saying the phrase "irrational exuberance," in 1996.

He warned, then, that too many investors were stampeding to buy "dot-com" stock, and that the "bubble" was bound to burst.

A stock on the stock market looks good, and a bunch of people buy it, then more people join them because they want to profit, too, & then having so many people buy the stock all at once causes the price to go up, and then the stock can become what they call "over-valued."

In 1996 I worked from a home office, and the TV would be on in the living room sometimes, and I would generally tune it to CNBC to learn about money and investing.

        After Mr. Greenspan gave his opinion using that phrase, "irrational exuberance," the news-readers and announcers on CNBC all seemed to adopt those words and use them as often as possible:  irrational exuberance; irrational exuberance.

It was funny - they just loved having a new thing to say. ...

Alan Greenspan

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