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

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

Heh-heh!

Now, Boyd, can you tell us who was the first to utter each of those sentiments -- or, at least, who/what made them popular?

The only one I'm sure of is that the second one comes from the Bible. The full verse is "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." -- Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV) It's part of a difficult passage in a difficult book, from the mind of someone (either named or titled Qoheleth, aka "Teacher") grappling with the complexities of life, sometimes self-contradicting. In many ways, it echoes many of the thoughts and vicissitudes common today. Yet, it was written roughly 4000 years ago. Nothing new, indeed.

Interestingly, there is a marketing/business connection, of sorts. The society being addressed in the book was a commercial one, and the audience was probably fairly affluent. The book is filled with commercial language, using terms like profit, success, advantage, wealth, deficit, etc. Some verses suggest trade, investment, diversification.

Anyway, just some interesting observations from scanning a commentary.

So, how about those other phrases? Where do they come from?

Chris

P.S. Ecclesiastes is one of the Books of Poetry or Wisdom Literature in the Bible. Rather apropos for the Seeds of Wisdom forum, eh? 8^>

> 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

Hi,

Thank you, I appreciate it when people ask me a question.

I don't have an answer in this case. I don't know where those sayings come from, other than I heard most of them from my wife who has as sharp a tongue as that awesome drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket.

Another Biblical saying that I like goes something like this (I'm paraphrasing because I'm too ignorant and lazy to present the actual wording):

"Man born of woman is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward."

Amen.

- Boyd

Hi,

Maybe the aliens found out the human race, overall, is criminally idiotic and they don't want to have anything to do with us. Maybe all that "probing" was their way of saying "Y'all are a bunch of a**holes!"

Just my theory,

- Boyd

... now you can imagine how difficult such a title was to remember, ey??

Thanks again for the effort!

-Anon