Irrational exuberance
Irrational exuberance is a phrase used by
Federal Reserve Board Chairman
Alan Greenspan in a speech given during the
stock market boom of the
1990s. The phrase was interpreted by financial pundits as a typically cryptic warning that the market might be overvalued. It became a
catch phrase of the era to such an extent that, during the economic
recession which followed the stock market collapse of
2000,
bumper stickers reading "I want to be irrationally exuberant again" were sighted in
Silicon Valley and elsewhere.