What's the current economy in your area like?

There is always that. But those guys in a mortgage company meeting room can make a car salesmen in that little closing room look like rookies.

What regulation and business is that?

In my position I have the ability to keep a pulse on a fairly large arena. Basically IL, WI, and IA. I see regional differences that swing both up and down. The Rockford IL area is still fairly depressed as far as jobs and construction goes, yet Chicago and some of the burbs are picking back up robustly. Southern WI sucks, yet the North east portion is picking up. Iowa was almost unaffected from the down turn with the exception of housing starts and commercial work slowing. Both are picking back up.

With including two new stores in the last couple of years, my company is holding our own and actually improving profit by about 25% per yr since 2009.

We are on our way back folks. Its going to be slow going, but we are crawling in the right direction. 2015 will be the new 2006.

Nah. If we don't grow too fast, we won't crash too quickly. I hope we learned the Real Estate lesson. It seems that, based on Facebook, many people (most) have learned the dot-com lesson.

My prediction is that the next bubble is medical technology (bio-tech, genetics). However, like the dot-com, it is based on reality....but it will get ahead of itself and probably cause some investment problems.

But for now, I say Buy Buy Buy...and, hopefully, they will be able to heal heal heal. Some amazing stuff happening. I used to say I was glad to be around for the birth of the internet, but the next generation is gonna say they were glad to be around for the full unlocking of the genetic codes.

True - but, firstly, the education loans don't start to total in the trillions....as does real estate, so the scope is somewhat different. Student loan debt, all told, is about one trillion...most of which is at least "decent" debt, so it cannot rock the boat like the MANY trillions in the last crash.

Real Estate debt is closer to 15 Trillion. Those are fairly big numbers. But it's not a question of the debt - but rather the inflated part of it......

I agree that Real Estate and many other commodities have recurring "waves", but I would not call them all bubbles in the traditional sense. My boat can deal with some decent sized waves, but should a 40 footer "rogue" come along, I'll be toast.

I've seen at least 3, and maybe more, big real estate bubbles....but nothing compared to this one. If we don't let it get that far out of hand, then the return to earth will be softer. IMHO, anyway.

Yep.

No problem. Us boomers are falling like flies.

I'm an optimist. Food is not a problem. Energy is not a problem (speaking long term).

The "growth" I foresee is growth in what you and I spend to be healthier and to cure the sick and infirm. That requires vastly less resources than, for instance, growing by building bigger houses or bigger SUVs.

"Growth" does not always mean more resources. If we work less, we probably consume less. A computer/tv/tablet of the future is likely to use 1/4 or less the energy of a old TV.

Efficiency is the key to the future. I think the future is bright.

Hmmm....I am trying to pick my direction as to not kick this to the can....

The housing bubble that burst was a wicked, unregulated friggen mess that I HOPE we are smart enough to avoid happening again. The dotcom bubble was another wet dream where peeps had "millions" worth of websites with no capital. Does not compute. The next guy that comes along and does it better, faster, with more buttons, wins. "POP" goes the bubble.

The current growth pattern is not a bubble. It is typically sensible growth with some mfg. coming back to the states. Slowly building housing markets (hey, the increase in population has to live somewhere) and commercial stuff.

Our fossil fuel energy sources ARE finite. I have been on that side of the argument for a looong time. As in the past, when hurdles need to be overcome - we do it. The next big thing in batteries, or solar, or bio, or raising green slime to produce fuels.... makes things a game changer. You don't know what is around the corner (nor do I) that will change the game. Autos? Heck, that happened just a little over a hundred years ago. Computers - pretty recent invention in the scheme of things. You get the picture that I am trying to paint (I hope).

To suggest that we need to stagnate and come to a grinding halt ain't fixing a thing. We had the same "food" concerns years ago. When we were raising 80 bushel per acre corn. Now its 180 (not counting failed years, like this one). We have a tendency to figure things out. It is what has perpetuated humans to the point we are at now, and I don't really see that changing.

We are coming back, folks. Take slow, deep breathes and keep on keep'in on.