Bubbles, bubbles...who's trying to not have the next bubbles?

[dewline]

Someone asked a question about economic bubbles and where they might be popping up next...

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/08/what-is-the-next-bubble.html

Frankly, being - like many of the rest of you here - in a somewhat vulnerable state these days, I thought keeping an eye on that discussion was a prudent thing to do. Also, working - or trying to work - in both speculative fiction as either writer, artist or both, and in writing on urban infrastructure issues, there's a story idea mine percolating away there.

So...rather than clutter up antipope's space any faster than he can handle, setting up a branch discussion here on the same subject seems a good thing, too.

Where should we be watching like hawks? Or vultures, perhaps?

Comments

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

The biggest and perhaps most dangerous problem we may have to face soon is the Peak Oil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil) problem. Unless North Americans (overall) can stop pushing the Reject Button whenever nuclear fission is mentioned, we may soon be paying $10.00 per liter (or more!) for gasoline at the pump. Even scarier, much if not most electricity is generated that way in almost all of the U.S. [Canada is luckier; 59% of our electricity needs is met by hydro-power.] A really bad scenario could see the cost of power generation soar out of reach of most of the U.S. [and much of Ontario, if new nuclear plants do not get constructed]. Talk about the brownout of our entire civilization. :-(

In the long run, nuclear fusion is far safer and saner than fission, but there is accumulating evidence that thermonuclear fusion will never work. [In particular, the belief that stars perform thermonuclear fusion is traceable to a 1920s assumption that does not seem to conform to observations; stars may in fact be an electrical discharge phenomenon (http://www.electric-cosmos.org/sun.htm). For more info, see this webpage (http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=x49g6gsf) as well.] Not much research has been done on other methods of nuclear fusion, so that issue is still open.

Hope this helps ...

[dewline.livejournal.com]

The stellar nature question could end up opening up some interesting - and hopefully useful - avenues of inquiry here at home, then?

[matthigh.livejournal.com]

Today's "On Point" on NPR discussed one of the possible "bubbles": Higher Education.

http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/09/shaking-up-higher-ed

Interesting point: In the United States, the total amount of student debt has just surpassed credit card debt. Yet even with the cost of attending a private university spiraling out of control (today's average cost: US$52,000 per year), it's not enough to cover the equally-out-of-control spending. It's an unsustainable system that is rapidly heading for a crash, with possible interesting repercussions on the shape of higher education ten to twenty years down the road.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Post-secondary education's been a sore spot for Canadians in similar ways, thanks to that escalating price tag per student and the debt issues that are being tacked onto it.

Not sure I'd want to see universities, community colleges/trade schools, etc. falling like dominoes if that's a potential consequence.