I just read the arcticle - 10 Bubbles In The Making, Business Insider (http://www.businessinsider.com/bubbles-in-the-making-2009-9). Below rae my views on that-
As economy is slowly reviving and all of are seeing rays of hope, there are few points on which we need to be cautious about. This article is very good insight or an alert of what can lead us to next Great Recession or even Great Depression .
As a personal note, we can draw below points from this article (I am mentioning what I have analyzed after reading the article)-
Gold bubble: For last 7 years, gold is rising continuously and in last 2.5 years, it has risen more than 100%. This made me curious to check the historical prices of Gold(http://goldprice.org/gold-price-history.html) and you will be astonished to know that today’s prices of Gold are almost same as of 1980 prices and Gold Prices have been almost constant from 1984 to 2003-04 (20 years!!!!). Since in India, we see Gold as holding option more than return generating option, we must make a note of this. A long term holding of gold with stable price can turn up in stagnation of money. Moreover it is very necessary to get rid of gold before prices reduce to half. So it is right time to plan investment strategy. But keep in mind, in Indian scenario, Gold is only option which you can redeem at any time with safe prices.
Education bubble: This is also a very good point, mentioned in the article. Think before taking any education loan (especially for MBA from less reputed foreign institutions). Tuition fees in US colleges are going to collapse (http://www.businessinsider.com/college-tuition-prices-are-about-to-collapse-violently-2009-9), and seems to be very true because of the pace with which we are drawing loans for abroad degrees. I think it would always be a better option if we hold for few years before jumping. We can use the next few years for our profile building, which is very much necessary to get admission in top notch institute (sometimes more than an excellent GMAT score). Certainly a loan of 25-30 lakhs can stop all your career progress if you have family responsibilities. As an IT professional, I think it is better to make cash reserve through onsite or other options before plunging into loan. After having a secure cash reserve we can take loans and repay it easily because a higher degree will always give an added advantage and fast growth trajectory.
There are few more bubbles, which have been mentioned here, but personally I think, we can invest our time and money in few of those. Like-
China Bubble: No doubt China will replace very soon Japan as second largest economy in world. It is always good to invest time in learning Mandarin. At least, for next 15 years, I don’t think this China bubble will burst provided there should not be any Sino-India war.
Green bubble: Same thought applies here also. All the countries are pouring money now in green and clean energy. If IT was the buzzword of passing decade, GREEN is going to be a buzzword of coming decade. In my opinion, it is worthy to invest time and money in acquiring Green Skills, whether those are Technology Related or Arts related.
