The prices of technology stocks have soared. There has also been a boom in SPACs or blank check companies. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have also soared in value and fluctuated on the pronouncements of Elon Musk. Even Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency founded as a joke, has enjoyed an impressive hike in value over the past year. The latest phase of the boom has witnessed a craze for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital assets such as Jack Dorsey’s first tweet.

What is going on? Why is this happening? Are we living through a bubble? Have people gone mad?

These are just some of the questions that we will address in this Long Run Institute (LRI) briefing hosted at the William J. Clinton Leadership Institute, Queen's Business School Belfast.

We will be taking the long run perspective on bubbles and asking why they happen, what investors should do during them, why they might endanger the financial system, and what central banks can and cannot do when they burst.

This topical virtual panel debate is moderated by John Turner, Long Run Institute director and Head of Queen’s Business School and features four international experts sharing their specialist perspectives.

We are joined by Central Banker, Rebecca Stuart from The Central Bank of Ireland, we will hear the investor perspective from Jamie Catherwood, O'Shaughnessy Asset Management, Stamford, Connecticut. Sonia Baxendale, CEO at The Global Risk Institute, Toronto shares the risk management perspective and we hear from Will Quinn, Queen’s University Belfast and author of 'Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles' sharing the Academic perspective.