Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Five Places to Look for Next Investment Bubble: Matthew Lynn

From Bloomberg:
Dot-coms? Done that. Property? Oil? Corn? Been there, got the T-shirt and nursed the losses, as well.

One thing we know for sure about today's global economy is that there is always an investment bubble somewhere. If you get in early enough, you can make a fortune riding the boom.

So with property prices collapsing faster than a tent on a stormy day and with the oil-and-commodity bandwagon gone, where should investors be looking for the next big thing? There are five areas worth thinking about: Old Europe, automobiles, stockbroking, the dollar, and private islands....

...Here are some places to start looking, bearing in mind that bubbles come in five basic types: places, industries, financing, currencies and luxuries.

FIGs Beat BRICs

First, the place: Old Europe. Forget about the BRICs. The next decade will belong to the FIGs -- France, Italy and Germany. We have written them off for so long that we're in danger of forgetting that all three have been among the richest societies in the world for more than 1,000 years....MORE