Two of the most cited examples of Peak Insanity of a market mania are 1) Pet Rocks in 1975-76, and 2) the Dutch Tulip mania of 1637. With the benefit of hindsight, no one with half of a mind today would think that either rocks or tulips would make sense as investment vehicles today.
Amirite? Well, am I?

There are several ways to measure whether stocks are expensive or cheap.
There is the Warren Buffett indicator.

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
- Mark Twain

At some point we are going to have another economic bubble burst.
It's inevitable. It's what we do.
So to stay in practice, let's play Spot The Bubble.

Ask anyone in the real estate or financial industry: we are not in middle of another housing bubble! You can be sure of that!

OK. Sure.
Home prices have exceeded the peak Housing Bubble prices.

A couple weeks ago I asked a question - How is this not a bubble? - after reading this.

Sometimes a bubble is hard to recognize until after it has burst.
Sometimes it is easy to see.

In 1637 a single tulip bulb in the Netherlands was traded for a 12 acre farm, or 10 times the annual income of a skilled tradesman.
That's clearly a bubble.

So is this.

China has seen some pretty dramatic bubbles in recent years, many of which have yet to pop, such as real estate.
The Chinese stock market bubble that peaked and crashed last summer comes to mind.

However, the craziness has only gotten more and more extreme. This time it was the commodities market that went bonkers.

This isn't 2008.
In 2008 we had one huge bubble in the economy burst. That's not what is happening today.
What is happening today is several smaller bubbles in the economy all imploding, or looking ready to implode.

To grasp the true scale of the problem let's consider a few numbers.