How you can survive the new bubble economy

Asset prices are rising together all around the world, buoyed by a flood of cheap money. But the 'bubble in everything' could burst at any time. John Stepek explains why - and how to protect your money when it does.

A debate is raging in the financial world. Are cheap money policies fuelling a bubble in asset prices or not?

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. The answer's obvious. Of course most asset prices are at, or heading for, bubble levels. Oil's near $80 a barrel even although there are ship-loads of it just floating around, being stored at sea. Most stock markets are overpriced in historical terms. Bond yields are at record lows.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.