A stock bubble? Maybe. But we’re in a feelings bubble for sure. Most of us understand that it’s hard to time the market and that we’re better off pursuing a steady policy of investing for the long term. What’s different now is the sense that, in the world beyond quarterly earnings statements, we’re on the brink of something big. Maybe it’s positive. It could turn out that AI really is a productivity miracle. Then again, what if AI crashes and takes down the economy with it? Could the massive spending on data centers and chips that’s powered growth suddenly turn into a sinkhole of unpaid debt? Or what if AI is so good it takes my job? (OK, Claude: Write something entertaining about Shiller p-e ratios.) What if a Federal Reserve under political pressure can’t rein in inflation? Or tariffs turn out to be the economic drag most economists say they’ll be? It’s easy to imagine history taking a big swerve, and that’s even counting the out-of-nowhere black swan events that can suddenly rattle an exuberant market. Standard advice to stay the course feels inadequate.