Some of the next bubbles to burst.

You would think that we would learn something from our bubbles bursting every time we see some kind of “new” money making thing that catches on. However, this isn’t the case. As a matter of fact, as a capitalistic nation, we tend to try to make money the greediest and fastest ways imaginable. In the case of the recent housing bubble, there were a lot of shady business practices that were happening to lead up to the burst.

So what are some of the things that economists are looking to in order to try to figure out what the next bubble will be?

Number one on the list might just be gun sales. While some Americans are anticipating anti-gun legislation to be passed down from Congress, they are in the stores buying the guns and ammunition up. There have been many places across the country that have simply run out of ammunition and factories can’t keep up with demand. Many guns have already started to ascend in value and the trend is expected to continue.

I find that the gun sales thing has no merit simply because it’s scared consumers driving up the prices themselves. This is all thanks to what these people are seeing as severe gun control and they are creating false demand for the products. Most of the fears will not subside unless they have another gun-loving Republican in office.

Another item that may soon be finding itself in a bubble is incandescent light bulbs in Europe. The European Union has banned the old, traditional light bulbs and wants everyone to switch over to the CFLs or other energy efficient types of lights. The ban has caused many of the consumers in those nations to begin hoarding the light bulbs in anticipation of the ban. Companies that produce these light bulbs have seen a huge increase in demand, and in September, when the law goes into effect, the bubble will burst and these companies will have to start churning out the energy efficient bulbs instead.

Thanks to a drying up of endowments, higher education may be another one of those bubbles to watch and its happening now. Some colleges rely heavily on endowments and many schools aren’t getting the money that they were even a year ago. This has caused overdependence on the endowments and colleges are really feeling the pinch now.

Maybe sometime far in the future alternative energy will become a bubble and it too will burst. For this to happen there has to be an update of the energy grid on a national level and there also has to be a new way of getting credits for tapping into green energy sources.

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