1.   Mr Mieno is still talking and acting tough because he is intent on bursting the speculative bubbles in shares and property.

2.   Everyone is hoping that these hi-tech companies will turn out to be the Microsofts of the future.

3.   At the moment they look more like the focus of a speculative bubble.

4.   And because Japanese banks and businesses have long had huge holdings in each other, the popping of the speculative bubble brought both of them crashing down together.

5.   At midyear, the run-up was attributed to a speculative bubble in gold stocks that could burst any time.

6.   Atlanta, too, has some speculative bubbles forming in attractive, intown neighborhoods such as Virginia-Highland, Morningside and Buckhead.

7.   Banks need the maximum spread to help write off trillions of yen in bad loans still on their books from the speculative bubble era.

8.   A growing number of experts believe that a speculative bubble that has developed in Internet and computer stocks will pop.

9.   But I had to face the fact that speculative bubbles usually are followed by recessions.

10.   But Harry Rinker, president of Rinker Enterprises and publisher of a guide to collectibles prices, believes the speculative bubble is collapsing because the market has been flooded.