The everything bubble idea isnt new. For years before 2022s stock market woes, leading minds on Wall Street including the investing legend Jeremy Grantham warned about a brewing superbubble. The idea is that near-zero interest rates and quantitative easing (QE)a policy where the Fed would buy mortgage-backed securities and government bonds to boost lending and investment in the economypushed investors toward riskier investments, allowed unsustainable business models to thrive on cheap debt, and fueled a savagely unhealthy surge in home prices. 

Lane TurnerThe Boston Globe/Getty Images

Its early days, but in retrospect a lot of outlandish financial predictions accompanied this era of easy money. And the fallout for Americans hasnt been pretty, as inflation continues to rage and recession fears mount. But there is a silver lining for the finance community. The everything bubble provided some of the most ridiculousand hilariousforecasts in history.

From cryptocurrency experts and hedge fund managers to economists and investment banks, the easy money era was filled with bulls who believed the good times would never end. Heres a look at some of their strangest calls. 

The Bitcoin bulls

The cryptocurrency boom of 2020 and 2021 was unprecedented. Between January 2020 and the peak of the crypto fervor in November 2021, the industrys total value grew to over $3 trillion and Bitcoin prices soared roughly 800%. 

The crypto faithful were sure that the party was just beginning. Billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper said in June 2021 that Bitcoin would hit $250,000 by the end of 2022. I think Im going to be right on this one, he assured CNBCs Jade Scipioni.

Bitcoin ended up finishing 2022 just above $16,500, but just last month, Draper repeated his call for Bitcoin to hit $250,000this time he said it would be by the middle of 2023. 

I expect a flight to quality and decentralized crypto like bitcoin, and for some of the weaker coins to become relics, Draper told CNBC.

Tim Draper did not respond to Fortunes request for comment.

Draper wasnt the only leading figure to jump on the Bitcoin train during the easy money era and make lofty forecasts either. ARK Invests Cathie Wood was the first public asset manager to gain exposure to Bitcoin via the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) as a part of her tech-focused exchange-traded ETFs in 2015.

Hugo AmaralSOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The bet led Wood to face serious criticism from her peers, but barring a brief crypto winter in 2018, it paid off as Bitcoins price soared to over $65,000 by November 2021.

Wood was sure that the good times would last throughout the bull market. In November 2020, she told Barrons that institutional adoption of crypto would drive Bitcoins price to $500,000 by 2026 and repeatedly bought the dip whenever Bitcoin prices fell. Wood even told The Globe and Mail in a February 2020 interview that Bitcoin was one of the largest positions in her retirement account. 

The ARK Invest CEO remained bullish even at the start of 2022, when Bitcoin prices had fallen from their highs of over $65,000 to just under $50,000. She argued that the leading cryptocurrency would touch $1 million by 2030 in ARKs Big Ideas 2022 annual research report.

Since then Bitcoins price has dropped more than 60%, but Wood and her team arent fazed, and still believe that their prediction is fair.

We think Bitcoin is coming out of this smelling like a rose, Wood told Bloomberg in December, arguing that institutions will eventually buy into Bitcoin after it is battle tested by the crypto winter.

Cathie Wood did not respond to Fortunes request for comment.

Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, who previously served as chief equity strategist at JPMorgan and spent over 25 years on Wall Street, has also been a perennial Bitcoin bull. In early 2022, he predicted that Bitcoin would hit $200,000 in the coming years. 

And despite the recent fall, which he admitted has been horrific for investors, Lee told CNBC in November that he still believes Bitcoin will come out of the current downtrend and hit his target. But while many crypto forecasters are sticking by their lofty estimates, Wall Street has been walking back some of theirs.

Tom Lee did not respond to Fortunes request for comment.

Lofty stock market forecasts

Investment banks made some pretty dramatic forecasts during the cheap money era. After the stock market soared throughout the pandemic, returning 28% to investors, Wall Street was confident that things would slow down in 2022, but not to the extent that they actually did.

Investment banks expected the S&P 500 to end 2022 at 4,825, representing only a mild 1% gain for the year. Instead, the blue-chip index dropped roughly 20%.

The (perhaps unwarranted) bullishness among investment banks was particularly clear when looking at the price targets for growth stocks that benefited from pandemic trends. The online used car retailer Carvana, for example, soared throughout the pandemic as used car prices rose to record highs. 

The firm was able to take advantage of consumers inability or unwillingness to shop for vehicles in person during COVID, leading some analysts to give incredibly bullish forecasts.

In January 2022, Morgan Stanleys auto analyst Adam Jonas called Carvana the apex predator in auto retail and assigned a $430 12-month price target to the stock. Since then, shares of the online car retailer have plummeted more than 97% to just $4.48and some analysts believe more pain lay ahead for investors.

Mario TamaGetty Images

Morgan Stanley did not respond to Fortunes request for comment.

New Constructs CEO David Trainer warned investors in June that Carvana was burning cash at an unsustainable rate and may not survive.

Time is running out for cash-burning companies kept afloat with easy access to capital, Trainer told Fortune. These zombie companies are at risk of going bankrupt.

Coinbase is another example of the fervor that developed on Wall Street over the past few years. When the cryptocurrency exchange went public in April 2021, shares spiked from their $250 reference price to $381 per share.

CNBCs Jim Cramer, a former hedge fund manager, took to Twitter after the IPO, saying that he liked Coinbase to $475. And he wasnt alone, investment banks average price target for the exchange was over $400 per share in early 2021.

Since then, however, Coinbase stock is down more than 90% amid the crypto winter. And Cramer has changed his mind, saying in a December 13 tweet that he was not a buyer of Coinbase here, calling it too early.

CNBC did not respond to Fortunes request for comment.

The cheap money era may have led many forecasters to assume that asset prices would continue to soar, regardless of valuations, but this year has proven to be a wake-up call. Wall Street analysts have slashed their price targets for many of the stock markets pandemic darlings. Its a new era for markets and forecasters, as Tim Pagliara, chief investment officer of the investment advisory firm CapWealth, told Fortune last month.

Were going to be unwinding a lot of the speculation, he said. Theres going to be a lot of revaluation of everything from commercial real estate to how the investing public looks at things like crypto.

I received a clear message at an early age that you have to act a certain way to be accepted, Lue recalls. There were all of these messagesat home and at schoolthat if you are displeasing, then youre going to have problems. Its your job to make other people happy. Its your job to fulfill other peoples dreams. Its your job to overperform and give 100%.

Thus, a people-pleaser was born.

But there was a part of me that was over giving in friendships, family, at workI was burning out because I would overdeliver, overperform and always be super reliable, she says. And when my health was struggling because I have an immune system disease called sarcoidosis, I continued to overdeliver at work to overcompensate for doing something as terrible as being unwell.

By definition, people-pleasers put the needs of others above their own. While helping others has great mental health benefits, doing so at your own detriment can bring about negative consequences, such as stress and depression, as well as resentment.

People-pleasing is an anxiety response, says Lue. Whether we recognize it in the moment, or the aftermath, what were really saying is Im anxious about something. Im anxious about not being liked. Im anxious about being rejected. Or Im anxious that Im not going to get what I want. People-pleasing is a manifestation of anxiety, and its also me trying to manage my anxiety, which is only creating more problems for me.

Once we recognize what people-pleasing is and how it shows up in our lives, then we can make necessary changes. Below, Lue outlines a few that can help you get started:

Check in with yourself

Lue recommends spending a week getting to know inner people-pleaser by paying close attention to who and what you say yes to and what you say no or maybe to.

The average people-pleaser is high on yes, she says. Theres a maybe or two in there, but theyre low on nos. Look at where youre spending your yes.

Before committing to another activity or request, Lue advises implementing a pause and checking in with yourself (and your bodys stress signals) before responding.

A lot of people dont bother to check in about how they feel and acknowledge whether they want to or need to say yes, she says. Who is it that sets off your anxiety when you see their name in your inbox or on your phone? That tension inside of youwhere youre dreading opening up your phone because youre anticipating them asking you for somethingis a sign that you are people-pleasing.

Lue also encourages people to pay attention to their feelings, whether its resentment, guilt, overwhelm, helplessness.

These are what I call the people-pleaser feelings, she says. This is your body letting you know that you may have done a good thing, but for the wrong reasons. Your feelings are letting you know that youre out of integrity with whatever it is that youve agreed to.

Prioritize your no

This time of the year theres a lot of new year, new you going on, says Lue. But you dont need a new you, you need a new no. The reason you are in this place is because you have overspent your yesses. You are in overdraft on your yesses.

The first step in recovering from people-pleasing is figuring out when and where you can say nowhether thats starting with the barista at the coffee shop who got your order wrong or jumping all in and pushing back on demands at work.

When you are saying no authentically, you can also say yes authentically, says Lue. You are doing things that are really in integrity with who you are, your values and how you want to feel instead of doing them out of obligation or for some hidden agenda.

Embrace the joy of saying (and hearing) no

While a lot of people-pleasers have a fear of conflict, Lue maintains that no doesnt hurt feelings, dynamics do.

If you say no to someone and they have an issue with that, thats telling you about the dynamic between you and that personnot about the validity of your no, she says. Its also telling you that based on their reaction, you need to implement some boundaries. This is someone who doesnt hear no from you often enough.

But if we fear that were going to hurt other peoples feelings by saying no, then it may also mean that we believe its not okay for people to say no to us. So its important that we not only embrace our own no, but we respect hearing no from others as well.

If you dont say yes authentically, you say it resentfully, fearfully, and avoidantly and that leads to more problems than if you had just said no in the first place, says Lue. When we really embrace this and recognize that people-pleasing is a lie, we can have more intimacy and honesty in our relationships.

Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter examines how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of todays executives. Subscribe here.

After the longest series of speaker ballots since 1859, McCarthy had 216 votes in the final tally, enough to be elected to the post that is second in line for the presidency, with six voting present. Democrats unanimously cast votes for their leader, New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries.

The protracted deadlock between establishment Republicans and hard-line conservatives took 15 votes over more than four days to resolve. And it previews more chaos ahead on the political challenges that will come up this year, including raising the US debt ceiling and funding the government.

The final vote was preceded by dramatic moments on the House floor as the Republican fight escalated to shouting and physical confrontations. After McCarthy was blocked on the 14th ballot, a stunning and humiliating defeat, he walked quickly to the back of the House chamber and confronted Floridas Matt Gaetz, one of his most strident critics.

Gaetz had held out casting his vote until the very last moment, when it would be decisive. He then voted present which has left McCarthy just short of victory. McCarthy ally Mike Rogers stormed over to Gaetz and started to say something but was restrained by Representative Richard Hudson.

Gaetz appearing to accuse McCarthy of something and pointing his finger at him. McCarthy eventually left, flustered, without the vote he needed, as a stunned House watched it unfold. 

Donald Trump, whose earlier endorsement of McCarthy failed to sway his opponents, made a last-minute pitch. Colorado Republican Ken Buck said the former president was making calls to members on the floor.

Until the speaker was elected, the House could conduct no other business and there are no rules governing the day-to-day operations of the 434 House lawmakers and their staffs. After Saturday mornings vote, returning and newly elected lawmakers were finally sworn in and prepared to vote for a package of rules outlining how the House will function. 

McCarthy, a California Republican, prevailed after days of intense negotiations and a series of humiliating defeats. He had to surrender considerable authority, promising to back procedural changes empowering dissidents, including the ability to let a single Republican force a House vote on ousting him as speaker. 

He also gave in to demands from fiscal conservatives to use the federal debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to force spending cuts and to cap fiscal year 2024 spending across the government at 2022 levels, which would mean significant cuts for many programs. Both heighten the risk of a marketrattling showdown with the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Joe Biden.

McCarthys bid for the speakers gavel had been in trouble since the election, in which the GOP fell well short of expectations of a so-called red wave that would give them solid majorities in both the House and Senate. 

They won the House, but its there that the struggle over the direction of a party is playing out most vividly. Republicans are divided between members from swing districts who have to court independent voters and hard-line conservatives with safe seats whove adopted Trumps populist agenda.

Perhaps the most consequential concession McCarthy made was a rules change allowing a single dissatisfied Republican to initiate a vote to remove him at any time.

The tide started to turn in favor of McCarthy once he and dissidents hammered out the contours of the deal, with 15 of the holdouts switching their votes to support him during the 12th voting round earlier Friday.

McCarthy had said he anticipated the speaker vote going to multiple rounds as a faction of ultra-conservatives pressed their demands for more power. He vowed he wouldnt back down. 

I dont have a problem getting a record for the most votes for speaker, he said before balloting began.

McCarthy had to wait for two of his supporters to return to the Capitol to vote on Friday. Incoming Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas was away to meet his newborn child and Representative Ken Buck of Colorado left Thursday because of a medical matter.

This is the second time McCarthy has hit roadblocks in a bid for speaker. When Ohio Republican John Boehner quit as speaker and resigned from the House in 2015 after dealing with rebellions by conservative Republicans, McCarthy, who was first elected to the House in 2012, was widely seen as a favorite to replace him. But he backed down in the face of opposition from that conservative faction.

McCarthy, 57, spent much of last year trying to win over a faction of conservatives who had a list of grievances about House rules, ire over compromises with Democrats and a lack of trust in the Californians claim to conservative credentials.

Arizona Representative Andy Biggs, one of the leaders of the revolt, said earlier in the week that McCarthy has a history that is off-putting to some people. He voted against McCarthy in the 14th round of votes but switched to present in the 15th and final one.

Like most House speakers, McCarthy comes into the job with a vast fundraising network. He raised nearly $26.5 million last cycle, more than any other member of the House. And the McCarthy-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC raised nearly $260 million. Of the 20 hardliners that opposed McCarthy in the first 11 ballots for the speakership, 14 of the holdouts received some of the largess from McCarthys fund. 

But notably, some of McCarthys most fervent detractors including Representatives Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida didnt receive any funds from McCarthys PAC.

Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter examines how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of todays executives. Subscribe here.