On the other hand, those policies, years later, would be blamed for stimulating the housing boom that eventually led to a bubble that burst.

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Many analysts are confident that the new boom won't explode like the 90s bubble burst.

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One obstacle to this is the boom period from 1982 through the tech bubble-burst, to the housing bubble-burst.

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Many schools saw applications stagnate during the heady days of the late 90s dot-com boom, only for demand to soar when the bubble burst and budding tycoons decided they could safely step away from the business cauldron for a while to improve their skills.

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But changes in these areas, as needed as they may be, would still be overwhelmed by the burst in spending on Social Security and Medicare as the Baby Boom generation retires and lifespans increase.

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Fannie Mae has burst into the top 30, an obvious beneficiary of low interest rates and the refinancing boom in home mortgages.

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Just as it's easy to spot America's boom towns by looking at where immigrant growth has increased the most, the places where the bubble has burst are also instantly recognizable.

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MBIA, and its peers like Ambac Financial Group, traditionally operated in the somewhat routine business of insuring municipal bonds but expanded into the mortgage market as the housing boom swelled and began writing insurance on mortgage-related instruments that turned sour en masse when the bubble burst.

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With the boom of women in the workforce (comprising just about 50% these days), along with a corresponding burst of female entrepreneurship ( 40% of all entrepreneurs), combined with the muscle of the female vote ( 66% in the last presidential election), the 2012 election may very well come down who makes the most convincing case to women.

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