It is so annoying when some finance person decides to apply rules of finance to things they do not apply, and then pats himself on the back for being oh so clever.
No college is not a bubble, because the definition of bubble does not include things like college education. A bubble refers to things that can be re-sold. More specifically a bubble refers to things whose sale value is much higher than their intrinsic value because of irrational expectation of ever-increasing resale value.
Education cannot be resold. Once you get some education it is yours. The only value of education is its intrinsic value, there is no resale value.
So there is no college bubble unless you are referring to college stocks. Now is college education too expensive, or overvalued? Perhaps. Are university of phoenix diplomas not worth the tuition? Probably. But one can express these ideas without making nonsensical comparisons with bubbles for tradeable commodities.
Talking about bubbles, anybody know how one becomes a "professional derivatives trader"? None of those guys seem very smart and yet they seem to make a lot of money.
I would say college cannot be resold, but it is sold in the first place. I looked up the Wikipedia article for "Economic Bubble", which defined it as "trade in high volumes at prices that are considerably at variance with intrinsic values." A college education is definitely a product, even though it is completely illiquid. I would definitely agree that many or even most people are paying more for college than it is worth, though not in every field and not at every school.
Talking about bubbles, anybody know how one becomes a "professional derivatives trader"? None of those guys seem very smart and yet they seem to make a lot of money.
Being a professional derivatives trader means that I trade options, full time, for a living. And no, you don't have to be smart to trade. And I'm not a finance guy, how insulting!
No college is not a bubble, because the definition of bubble does not include things like college education. A bubble refers to things that can be re-sold. More specifically a bubble refers to things whose sale value is much higher than their intrinsic value because of irrational expectation of ever-increasing resale value.
Education cannot be resold. Once you get some education it is yours. The only value of education is its intrinsic value, there is no resale value.
So there is no college bubble unless you are referring to college stocks. Now is college education too expensive, or overvalued? Perhaps. Are university of phoenix diplomas not worth the tuition? Probably. But one can express these ideas without making nonsensical comparisons with bubbles for tradeable commodities.
Talking about bubbles, anybody know how one becomes a "professional derivatives trader"? None of those guys seem very smart and yet they seem to make a lot of money.