boom or bust

boom or bust

Resulting in an outcome that will either be very good or very bad. Many professional athletes face a boom or bust situation early in their career, where they are either drafted to a professional league or don't advance at all. Working in the oil fields is always boom or bust: there's either lots of work for everyone, or hardly any work for anyone.
See also: boom, bust
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • bust out of (some place)
  • bust someone out of somewhere
  • bust someone one
  • bust (someone) one
  • fit to bust
  • boom sticks
  • bust a grub
  • ace boom-boom
  • boom
References in periodicals archive
Even if one is to use judgment on asset prices from a forward-looking perspective, it certainly helps to have an objective baseline definition for what constitutes a boom or bust looking retrospectively for research.
Boom or Bust: Understanding and Profiting from a Changing Consumer Economy
Boom or Bust builds on the groundbreaking work of financial writer Harry S.
Boom or Bust applies similar demographic insights to inflation.
Boom or Bust first demonstrates the extent of the problem, which is substantial.
In the past, boom or bust, the jet pilots I knew still really liked their job.
Is the housing market heading for boom or bust? Neither, say experts
Topics include "The Price of Privilege: Whiteness in America"; "Firing Line: Black Publishers in the Crosshairs"; "Urban Fiction: Dumbing Readers Down?"; "The Black Arts Movement: Lessons Learned and Lost"; and "Art and Culture in the New Harlem: Boom or Bust?"
It had the potential to go boom or bust," Thomason explains.
It was boom or bust for Michelle when she launched her Ultimo underwear range on the internet five months ago.
"The industry as a whole has become much more dynamic than it was a few years ago and is more resilient than the boom or bust of one or two sectors," he observed.
* Is Harlem's 125th Street an indicator of whether it is boom or bust time for our urban centers"?
Boom or bust, recession or recovery, every few years the nation's economy shifts.