Economics · Financial History
Bubbles, Panics, and Crowds: A History of Financial Manias
by Joseph Trek
From seventeenth-century Dutch tulip speculation to the 2008 housing collapse and today's meme stocks and crypto contagion, financial manias follow a startlingly consistent pattern. This history traces how stretches of economic calm paradoxically breed reckless risk-taking, why crowds repeatedly mistake rising prices for proof of value, and what the recurring psychology of booms and busts reveals about human judgment under uncertainty.