What we’re reading: Charles P. Kindleberger’s “Manias, Panics and Crashes”

A classic account of the common features of financial crises, by the economic historian who helped design the Marshall Plan. 

Financial whizzkids who think they’ve come up with a new money spinner are often told to read their Kindleberger—another way of saying that there is nothing new under the sun.

The Economist 8 December 2022

Another infamous example was the South Sea Bubble in 1720.  

Even Sir Isaac Newton averted his gaze from the stars for long enough to buy some shares and make a profit, then buy some more and lose a packet. His comment? “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”

Every time a bubble appears it looks different, but there are common features. James Grant

Rising prices draw in ever more investors, all convinced that prices will go on rising. 

Charles Kindleberger, an American economist, put it nicely: “There is nothing so disturbing to one’s well-being and judgment as to see a friend getting richer.”

The Economist, September 25, 1999

https://www.internetional.se/econspectulip9909.htm