So that's where the money for the current run up in asset prices came from? It didn't come -- even a little -- from the almost free money central banks have been handing out for the past 15 years?
(I only said it can, I didn't say it necessarily did this time! I think it's a mix and may depend in part on what country you're in and the specific assets in question.)
Central bank free money certainly can tie into it and IMO almost definitely did. Speculative asset bubbles seem to happen more easily in low interest rate environments, and bubbles can be halted early by responsible government / monetary policy. (Or conversely, allowed or encouraged to continue for far too long by irresponsible policy). Speculation on something money-adjacent, like gold or bitcoin, can happen in anticipation of future government money printing that may or may not happen. Anticipation of official or unofficial government backstops of financial institutions or pension funds can also create moral hazards that incentivize private lending into a speculative asset bubble without due risk management.
But bubbles can also apparently happen all on their own.
(And of course an increase in asset prices can also be caused by a genuine increase in the fundamental value or productivity of those assets, which hopefully has occurred to some extent over 15 years of hard work, so it's not all speculation.)
