Description
Martino Fine Books EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS AND THE Madness of Crowds Financial panics and manias by Charles Mackay
REPRINT. 106 pp. Mackays original work first published in 1841 in three volumes is an account of irrational human behavior across many spectra. Financial panics occultism witch mania and the crusades were among the topics he covered. The present edition reprints only those portions of Mackays original work that deal with financial mania and panics.Among the alleged bubbles or financial manias described by Mackay is the South Sea Company bubble of 17111720 the Mississippi Company bubble of 17191720 and the Dutch tulip mania of the early seventeenth century. According to Mackay during this bubble speculators from all walks of life bought and sold tulip bulbs and even futures contracts on them. Allegedly some tulip bulb varieties briefly became the most expensive objects in the world during 1637.Financier Bernard Baruch credited the lessons he learned from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds with his decision to sell all his stock ahead of the financial crash of 1929.show more