One of the defining characteristics of a bubble is that a threshold-clearing percentage of people don't know it's a bubble. Thus, there's no such thing as "a b

One of the defining characteristics of a bubble is that a threshold-clearing percentage of people don't know it's a bubble. Thus, there's no such thing as "a bubble that didn't burst", there are only either things that weren't bubbles in the first place... or bubbles that haven't burst YET. An example that comes to mind is petroleum. There are those who believe that oil-based energy, which is a key underpinning of our economy, military, lifestyle, etc., has been part of a "long boom" following coal but has reached a peak and will cause our economy to burst like a bubble when it finally retracts... and there are those who disagree and think we'll find economical substitutes as incentives warrant our doing so.