Decades ago, when a toddler tripped the exclamation was: "Faw down, go boom". In the markets it's the opposite as the mania runs until reckless speculators exhaust themselves. The boom completes, then most asset prices "faw down", taking participants through an emotional whipsaw from euphoria to dismay. Worse, the hit initiates a recession and over the centuries – the bigger the boom the bigger the bust.
Encompassing stocks, bonds, commodities and real estate this has been the biggest bubble in history. With considerable fascination, it has been accompanied by the equivalent "boom" in radical politics determined to trash democracies from freedom and prosperity to servitude and poverty.
