Download or read book Money for Nothing written by Thomas Levenson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sweeping story of the world’s first financial crisis: “an astounding episode from the early days of financial markets that to this day continues to intrigue and perplex historians . . . narrative history at its best, lively and fresh with new insights” (Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lords of Finance) A Financial Times Economics Book of the Year ● Longlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution—the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos—would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles. Enter the upstart leaders of the South Sea Company. In 1719, they laid out a grand plan to swap citizens’ shares of the nation’s debt for company stock, removing the burden from the state and making South Sea’s directors a fortune in the process. Everybody would win. The king’s ministers took the bait—and everybody did win. Far too much, far too fast. The following crash came suddenly in a rush of scandal, jail, suicide, and ruin. But thanks to Britain’s leader, Robert Walpole, the kingdom found its way through to emerge with the first truly modern, reliable, and stable financial exchange. Thomas Levenson’s Money for Nothing tells the unbelievable story of the South Sea Bubble with all the exuberance, folly, and the catastrophe of an event whose impact can still be felt today.

Download or read book The South Sea Bubble written by Helen Paul and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is an economic history of the South Sea Bubble. It combines economic theory and quantitative analysis with historical evidence in order to provide a rounded account. It brings together scholarship from a variety of different fields to update the existing historical work on the Bubble. Up until now, economic history research has not been integrated into mainstream histories of 1720. Technical work on share prices and ledgers has been inaccessible to a wider audience. As well as providing new evidence against the gambling mania argument, the book also interprets the existing economic history scholarship for non-specialists.

Download or read book The South Sea Bubble written by John Carswell and published by Sutton Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic account of the first great British financial scandal is a brilliant recreation of eighteenth-century social and economic life and will interest anyone fascinated by scandal, corruption, and human vanity.

Download or read book Boom and Bust written by William Quinn and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do stock and housing markets sometimes experience amazing booms followed by massive busts and why is this happening more and more frequently? In order to answer these questions, William Quinn and John D. Turner take us on a riveting ride through the history of financial bubbles, visiting, among other places, Paris and London in 1720, Latin America in the 1820s, Melbourne in the 1880s, New York in the 1920s, Tokyo in the 1980s, Silicon Valley in the 1990s and Shanghai in the 2000s. As they do so, they help us understand why bubbles happen, and why some have catastrophic economic, social and political consequences whilst others have actually benefited society. They reveal that bubbles start when investors and speculators react to new technology or political initiatives, showing that our ability to predict future bubbles will ultimately come down to being able to predict these sparks.

Download or read book Money for Nothing written by Thomas Levenson and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sweeping story of the world’s first financial crisis: “an astounding episode from the early days of financial markets that to this day continues to intrigue and perplex historians . . . narrative history at its best, lively and fresh with new insights” (Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lords of Finance) A Financial Times Economics Book of the Year ● Longlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution—the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos—would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles. Enter the upstart leaders of the South Sea Company. In 1719, they laid out a grand plan to swap citizens’ shares of the nation’s debt for company stock, removing the burden from the state and making South Sea’s directors a fortune in the process. Everybody would win. The king’s ministers took the bait—and everybody did win. Far too much, far too fast. The following crash came suddenly in a rush of scandal, jail, suicide, and ruin. But thanks to Britain’s leader, Robert Walpole, the kingdom found its way through to emerge with the first truly modern, reliable, and stable financial exchange. Thomas Levenson’s Money for Nothing tells the unbelievable story of the South Sea Bubble with all the exuberance, folly, and the catastrophe of an event whose impact can still be felt today.

Download or read book Famous First Bubbles written by Peter M. Garber and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2001-08-24 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The jargon of economics and finance contains numerous colorful terms for market-asset prices at odds with any reasonable economic explanation. Examples include "bubble," "tulipmania," "chain letter," "Ponzi scheme," "panic," "crash," "herding," and "irrational exuberance." Although such a term suggests that an event is inexplicably crowd-driven, what it really means, claims Peter Garber, is that we have grasped a near-empty explanation rather than expend the effort to understand the event. In this book Garber offers market-fundamental explanations for the three most famous bubbles: the Dutch Tulipmania (1634-1637), the Mississippi Bubble (1719-1720), and the closely connected South Sea Bubble (1720). He focuses most closely on the Tulipmania because it is the event that most modern observers view as clearly crazy. Comparing the pattern of price declines for initially rare eighteenth-century bulbs to that of seventeenth-century bulbs, he concludes that the extremely high prices for rare bulbs and their rapid decline reflects normal pricing behavior. In the cases of the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles, he describes the asset markets and financial manipulations involved in these episodes and casts them as market fundamentals.

Download or read book A Conspiracy of Paper written by David Liss and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2001-01-30 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benjamin Weaver, a Jew and an ex-boxer, is an outsider in eighteenth-century London, tracking down debtors and felons for aristocratic clients. The son of a wealthy stock trader, he lives estranged from his family—until he is asked to investigate his father’s sudden death. Thus Weaver descends into the deceptive world of the English stock jobbers, gliding between coffee houses and gaming houses, drawing rooms and bordellos. The more Weaver uncovers, the darker the truth becomes, until he realizes that he is following too closely in his father’s footsteps—and they just might lead him to his own grave. An enthralling historical thriller, A Conspiracy of Paper will leave readers wondering just how much has changed in the stock market in the last three hundred years. . . .

Download or read book The First Crash written by Richard Dale and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly three centuries the spectacular rise and fall of the South Sea Company has gripped the public imagination as the most graphic warning to investors of the dangers of unbridled speculation. Yet history repeats itself and the same elemental forces that drove up the price of South Sea shares to dizzying heights in 1720 have in recent years produced the global crash of 1987, the Japanese stock market bubble of the 1980s/90s, and the international dot.com boom of the 1990s. The First Crash throws light on the current debate about investor rationality by re-examining the story of the South Sea Bubble from the standpoint of investors and commentators during and preceding the fateful Bubble year. In absorbing prose, Richard Dale describes the trading techniques of London's Exchange Alley (which included 'modern' transactions such as derivatives) and uses new data, as well as the hitherto neglected writings of a brilliant contemporary financial analyst, to show how investors lost their bearings during the Bubble period in much the same way as during the dot.com boom. The events of 1720, as presented here, offer insights into the nature of financial markets that, being independent of place and time, deserve to be considered by today's investors everywhere. This book is therefore aimed at all those with an interest in the behavior of stock markets.

Download or read book The Origins of English Financial Markets written by Anne L. Murphy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late seventeenth century was a crucial period in English financial history. A host of joint-stock companies emerged offering the opportunity for investment in projects ranging from the manufacture of paper to the search for sunken treasure. Driven by the demands of the Nine Years' War, the state also employed innovative tactics to attract money, its most famous scheme being the incorporation of the Bank of England. This book provides a comprehensive study of the choices and actions of the investors who enthusiastically embraced London's new financial market. It highlights the interactions between public and private finance, looks at how information circulated around the market and was used by speculators and investors, and documents the establishment of the institutions - the Bank of England, the national debt and an active secondary market in that debt - on which England's financial system was built.

Download or read book Early Speculative Bubbles and Increases in the Supply of Money written by and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2009-03-16 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Housing Bubble was hardly the first in human history. What's eluded historians is the same issue that eludes commentators today: the underlying cause of bubbles. This book is the first (and only) book to solve the mystery of the most famous bubble in world history: Tulipmania in 17th century Netherlands. It Is a legendary event but explanations have been lacking. People blame irrational exuberance, free markets, and an unleashed aristocracy. Douglas French takes a different route: he follows the money to prove that the bubble resulted from a government intervention that dramatically exploded the money supply and fueled the tulip-price bubble – not altogether different from modern bubbles. This book was French’s Master’s thesis written under the direction of Murray Rothbard and examining three of the most famous speculative bubble episodes in history through the lens of Austrian Business Cycle Theory. Although each of these episodes is well documented, this book examines the monetary interventions that engendered each of these events showing that not only the Mississippi Bubble and the South Sea Bubble were caused by government meddling, but Tulipmania was as well. Tulipmania was unique in that it was the sound money policy of the Dutch combined with free coinage laws that led to an acute increase in the supply of money and fostered an atmosphere that was ripe for speculation and malinvestment, manifesting itself in the intense trading of tulip bulbs. The author examines not only the Mississippi Bubble but also the life and monetary theories of its architect, John Law. Professor Joe Salerno calls Law the world’s first macroeconomist who implemented a Keynesian monetary system in France nearly two hundred years before Keynes was born. At the same time across the English Channel, a nearly bankrupt British government looked on with envy at Law’s system, believing that he was working a financial miracle. It was anything but this and investors in both countries were devastated. Although these episodes occurred centuries ago, readers will find the events eerily similar to today’s bubbles and busts: low interest rates, easy credit terms, widespread public participation, bankrupt governments, price inflation, frantic attempts by government to keep the booms going, and government bailouts of companies after the crash. When will we learn? We first have to get cause and effect in history straight. This book is an excellent contribution to that effort.

Download or read book Speculation Trading and Bubbles written by José A. Scheinkman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-08 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As long as there have been financial markets, there have been bubbles—those moments in which asset prices inflate far beyond their intrinsic value, often with ruinous results. Yet economists are slow to agree on the underlying forces behind these events. In this book José A. Scheinkman offers new insight into the mystery of bubbles. Noting some general characteristics of bubbles—such as the rise in trading volume and the coincidence between increases in supply and bubble implosions—Scheinkman offers a model, based on differences in beliefs among investors, that explains these observations. Other top economists also offer their own thoughts on the issue: Sanford J. Grossman and Patrick Bolton expand on Scheinkman's discussion by looking at factors that contribute to bubbles—such as excessive leverage, overconfidence, mania, and panic in speculative markets—and Kenneth J. Arrow and Joseph E. Stiglitz contextualize Scheinkman's findings.

Download or read book The Rise of Financial Capitalism written by Larry Neal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-11-26 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on computer analysis of price quotes from the eighteenth-century financial press, this work reevaluates the evolution of financial markets.

Download or read book Meltdown written by Nina Dubin and published by Harvey Miller. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The international crash of 1720 long served as a touchstone for behavioral economists who perceive it as a gateway to the boom-and-bust cycles of the modern world. Perhaps not surprisingly, art history has contributed relatively little to our understanding of the significance of 1720. This book aims to redress this imbalance via a focus on the depiction of the first international financial crisis following the 1720 collapse of stock market bubbles in England, France, and the Netherlands. Its most important visual source, Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid ('The Great Mirror of Folly'), is a series of approximately seventy-five bawdy, tragicomic engravings satirizing the crisis and its catastrophic effects. The visual sources of the series are also explored, including prints related to the earlier 'tulip mania' bubble, as well as related materials including propaganda and satirical pamphlets, letters, coins, and paper currency. Key themes or motifs that recur in the Tafereel prints, include the New World and colonial trade; mass illness; paper and its association with insubstantiality, illusion and trickery; debauchery; and the carnivalesque.

Download or read book Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton s Life written by William Stukeley and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life" from William Stukeley. Antiquary, ed at Cambridge (1687-1765).

Download or read book South Sea Bubble written by Noël Coward and published by . This book was released on 2003-01 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Great Swindle written by Virginia Cowles and published by . This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The South Sea Company written by Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-04-19 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts of the company *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading Economists have called the South Sea bubble "one of the most famous and dramatic episodes in the history of speculation." The company's spectacular fall impacted not only its investors, but public confidence in corporations, investments, and even banking worldwide. How did the directors of one of the most successful joint-stock companies at the time, sought after in social circles as financiers and masterminds, come to be called before Parliament to testify? The anger over the dishonesty of the directors of the company resulted in one member of the House of Lords suggesting that the South Sea Company directors "be sewn up in sacks, along with snakes and monies, and then drowned." Though the history of the South Sea Company is obscure and unfamiliar to most, the regular references to the company and the scandal that surrounded it have lead it to be regularly referenced by economists, historians, and even investors today. It is a story centered around England's history of debt, loans, and banking, all against the backdrop of modern history's most famous empire. The South Sea Company: The History of the British Empire's South American Stock Company examines the history and legacy of one of England's most notorious trading companies. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the South Sea Company like never before, in no time at all.