Hey everybody - there was a book mentioned on here....

...that I was looking to get, but now I can't remember the name. It had to do with market "bubbles" and crazy trends and delusions of the masses ...and the title sounded something like that - for example "Crazy Delusions of the Marketplace and other such mass Hysteria" ... the title had that kinda' cadence.

Does anyone remember a book that sounded kinda' like that on here (available on eBay and Amazon, used or new, I'm sure - but I can't search for it without knowing the name or author - arrgh!)? It's supposed to be THE book to read to understand why bubbles (like the internet bubble) occur/occurred by giving examples of such throughout history (from what I understand though, or what i remember, it was written before the internet bubble).

Any clues?

Thanx!

-Anon

> ...that I was looking to get, but now I
> can't remember the name. It had to do with
> market "bubbles" and crazy trends
> and delusions of the masses ...and the title
> sounded something like that - for example
> "Crazy Delusions of the Marketplace and
> other such mass Hysteria" ... the title
> had that kinda' cadence.

The search engine is acting a bit funny... I'll have to fix that.

However, I found the post you *might* be looking for. It's a post by Boyd - another one of his short, yet valuable posts!

Boyd's post links to an article, which mentions the book you might be looking for. The book is called "Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises" by Charles P. Kindleberger. (It seems to be about the same topic.)

Here's a link to Boyd's original post (you can follow it to the article)....

http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=9437

It could be relevant now, since many people think we are currently in a real estate bubble.

- Dien

...for some reason there's an element of "delusion" or something like that ... in other words the title had something to do with not only the markets and crashes, but really any kind of baseless "hysteria" ... the title you mention comes awfully close... so much so that i'm beginning to doubt my own memory on this (in fact, I seem to remember Boyd mentioning the book also).

Arrgh... this is drivin' me nuts! It's like the title is on the edge of my tongue ...

Thanks anyway Dien... maybe as the weekend peters out more will view and comment...

-Anon.

> The search engine is acting a bit funny...
> I'll have to fix that.

> However, I found the post you *might* be
> looking for. It's a post by Boyd - another
> one of his short, yet valuable posts!

> Boyd's post links to an article, which
> mentions the book you might be looking for.
> The book is called "Manias, Panics, and
> Crashes: A History of Financial Crises"
> by Charles P. Kindleberger. (It seems to be
> about the same topic.)

> Here's a link to Boyd's original post (you
> can follow it to the article)....

>
> http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=9437
> It could be relevant now, since many people
> think we are currently in a real estate
> bubble.

> - Dien

The Tipping Point - How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. by Malcolm Gladwell

http://www.gladwell.com/books2.html

Here's another possibility....

"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" by Charles Mackay.

(Haven't read it myself, but it looks like it would be interesting!)

- Dien

> Here's another possibility....

> "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and
> the Madness of Crowds" by Charles
> Mackay.

I just found out you can read this online for free.... It was written in the 19th century.

For example, "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" can be found online here...
http://www.econlib.org/library/Mackay/macExContents.html

and "Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds" can be found online here....
http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm

- Dien

Just read chapter one of "Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds" - about John Law - and it's like reading about an old version of the internet bubble. Intersting.

Thanks for linking, Dien.

Michael Ross

The more things change, the more they stay the same. There's nothing new under the Sun. What goes around, comes around. Same s**t, different day. Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt.

[Cynicism Off]

Good luck to us all,

- Boyd

In chapter two - the story about it happening in England - the English even refered to it as a Bubble. And called those fly-by-night companies "Bubbles."

My favourite Bubble is the guy who sold shares in his enterprise called, "Enterprise for producing great things which I can't tell you about yet because nobody is allowed to know" or something as idiotic. And 1,000 people paid him $2 to be allowed to buy shares when he revealed more in one month. (Of course, he shut up shop later that day and left England for Europe.)

Michael Ross

Hi,

You wrote:
> My favourite Bubble is the guy who sold
> shares in his enterprise called,
> "Enterprise for producing great things
> which I can't tell you about yet because
> nobody is allowed to know" or something
> as idiotic.

That book Joe Makowski told us about (Joe is a very smart man, I've found out), which is called The Secrets of Syndication: How To Make Money With Other People's Money by Beguelin and which was published in 1983, and which I found at abebooks.com, tells how to raise money for projects by taking on partners. Maybe I should set up a daytrading syndicate and raise money for a good-sized account.

The main problem would be if I lost all my syndicate's money they might turn me over to another kind of Syndicate and then you'd notice I wasn't posting messages here any more because I'd be at the bottom of the Lake.

I see why the Gov doesn't let just anyone sell shares, because the idea you sketched out above would, no doubt, still work just as well as it did then. Come to think of it, there is a way anyone can do their own small-scale IPO but I can't remember what it's called, DIPO or something like that.

Best,

- Boyd