Saturday scenes: planning for a new Tulip Bubble?

Somebody's front yard boasts quite a display.

Also their side yard.

All this in mid-winter too. ...The Tulip Bubble (or mania) in Holland in the 1630s was the first instance of a recurrent feature of capitalism: in a sort of frenzy, speculators begin to ascribe fantastic values to assets which realistically are close to worthless. You know it is is bubble when the inevitable crash follows. (See also mortgage-backed securities with no underlying housing value in 2008.)

Just today in the tech section of the New York Times, it comes out that JPMorgan Chase has decided to jump into the crytocurrency market:

Despite questioning Bitcoin’s legitimacy, Mr. Dimon has said he recognizes blockchain’s potential in the future of the global financial system. And JPMorgan has already released a blockchain platform, Quorum, that several institutions are using to keep track of financial data.

With the announcement of its coin, JPMorgan is widening its experiment and moving to make the idea of digital currencies more palatable to its typically risk-averse corporate customers.

Do I sniff tulips?

Flowers encountered while Walking San Francisco.