The return of bubble economies: we are now back in 2007

In the past few days, the feel good sensation of the nascent recovery has taken us a bit too far. I'm receiving spam emails about how easy it is to get income from the stock markets, how many people are getting rich trading options, and so forth.

Banks have been recruiting like there's no tomorrow, expanding in every possible area. Bonuses allocated in 2009 were outrageous, Goldman Sachs UK bonuses being bigger than this quarter company earnings.

Newspapers are talking about Why a career in finance adds up, and various other similar topics:

Latest job vacancy figures show a 61.6 per cent annual increase in job vacancies and the financial and insurance sectors with some 32,000 needing to be filled, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The industry's employers report increases in recruitment, particularly of graduates. PwC, the professional services firm, is recruiting 1,000 students this year and Ernst & Young is expecting to recruit 900 graduates to begin careers in accountancy and finance -- an increase of almost a third on 2009.

Despite the grim news on graduate unemployment generally, vacancies in banking, accountancy and investment banking are all up by a third according to the High Fliers survey of the top 100 employers.

Its Graduate Market in 2010 report found starting salaries in investment banking are now averaging Pounds 42,000 -- up by 10 per cent on last year -- compared with an average of Pounds 29,000. Recruitment firms which specialise in financial jobs are also benefiting from the increase.

This week, I also had two friends who called me to tell me that they made offers on properties, in Paris and London, because prices are now "cheap" and they cannot go further down, and they expect to become rich with what they call investment. Talks about getting on the ladder (UK) or investir dans la pierre (France) have been sprouting around me.

Did I travel back in time??? Far are the days of the krach and fear (though it was only a year ago!) and we are back now in 2007. All this to say that we have probably passed the top in terms of market valuation and also in terms of the real-economy...