FT Wealth Comedians sometimes have the best investment advice. Last year, The Onion, the US satirical newspaper, carried the headline: “Recession-plagued nation demands new bubble to invest in”. It quoted a “financial analyst” saying the world needed “a concrete way to create more imaginary wealth in the very immediate future”.
Many a true word is spoken in jest. There is no better way to make money than a bubble – providing, of course, that you know that it is a bubble and that you get out before it bursts. Rather than spending effort on difficult tasks like analysing corporate cash flows, looking for a bubble involves a straightforward judgment on the behaviour of fellow human beings. Deploying money this way may cross the line from investment into speculation but it can be mightily profitable.
