John Plender

Jan 16, 2026 – 5.00am

Be warned. We are reliving the Roaring Twenties. Not quite a new Jazz Age – jazz is a bit tired these days. But artificial intelligence euphoria is rampant, crypto lunacy is rife, credit is bubbling in private markets and the US is once again at the heart of a global fiscal and financial maelstrom. Close to 100 years on, we have to ask: does another 1929 crash loom?

A related and pertinent question is whether we are in a bubble. Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan famously remarked during the dotcom boom of the late 1990s: “Bubbles generally are perceptible only after the fact. To spot a bubble in advance requires a judgment that hundreds of thousands of informed investors have it all wrong. Betting against markets is usually precarious at best.”

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Financial Times