Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.19 (925 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0452281806 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-01-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Entertaining and Quite Interesting Book About (gasp!) Markets and Speculation Ah, the oft-asked question: "How long will people keep buying the lipstick-painted pigs that others are selling?"Until they don't. And that is what lies at the center of fear and greed, humankind's great motivators. (Not love and hate. Those are just variations on the same theme.)Chancellor does an admirable job of making an incredibly boring subject human, emotional, and funny (my apologies to those who think finance and markets are super interesting—out of context they are, but relative to most other things in life, they aren't). But let's get back to what matters, Chancellor's book. He makes the subject inter. Deja Vu All Over Again Mercenary Trader As you contemplate the rise and rise of China's planned economy, consider this passage from an anonymous bank official:"We intended first to boost the stock and property markets. Supported by this safety net - rising markets - export-oriented industries were supposed to reshape themselves so they could adapt to a domestic-led economy. This step was then supposed to bring about an enormous growth of assets over every economic segment, followed by an increase of investment in plant and equipment. In the end, loosened monetary policy would boost real economic growth."Sounds about right, doesn't it? There's just one catch. A. Menon said Very entertaining and detailed account of many of history's financial bubbles. Devil Take the Hindmost, by Edwad Chancellor is, as the title describes a history of financial speculation. It is an entertaining and informative account of many of history's most famed bubbles. The book is split into 9 chapters and focuses on major specific bubbles that were created by financial manias. In reading the book one is reminded of the eerie similarity of the various bubbles and how though the episodes dont repeat, there is clearly much that rhymes. I'll give a quick overview of the topics.The author starts by introducing financial speculation in roman times and includes very early accounts of our first fin
The essence of speculation remains a Utopian yearning for freedom and equality which counterbalances the drab rationalistic materialism of the modern economic system with its inevitable inequalities of wealth. No matter what his or her current investment outlook is--bull or bear--anyone with capital to invest would do well to spend a thoughtful weekend with this book. Since 1990, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen some 8,000 points, from around 2,700 in January 1990 to nearly 11,000 today--a boom by anyone's standards, including Edward Chancellor's. investors by using his analysis of past speculative manias as a lens through which to view the current bull-market binge. But it's
Drawing colorfully on the words of such speculators as Sir Isaac Newton, Daniel Defoe, Ivan Boesky, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Devil Take the Hindmost is part history, part social science, and purely illuminating: an erudite and hugely entertaining book that is more timely today than ever before.. A contributing writer to The Financial Times and The Economist, looks at both the psychological and economic forces that drive people to "bet" their money in markets; how markets are made, unmade, and manipulated; and who wins when speculation runs rampant. Is your investment in that new Internet stock a sign of stock market savvy or an act of peculiarly American speculative folly? How has the psychology of investing changed--and not c