"A Brief History of Panics and Their Periodical Occurrence in the United States" by Clement Juglar explores the cyclical nature of economic crises in American history. Juglar, a pioneering economist, meticulously analyzes various financial panics, detailing their causes and effects on society. He emphasizes the recurring patterns of boom and bust, illustrating how speculative excesses often lead to inevitable downturns. Through historical examples, Juglar provides insights into the psychol...

This edition features a linked Table of Contents.CONTENTSTO GOLDEN DAYSPREFACE TO THIRD EDITIONINTRODUCTIONA HISTORY OF PANICS IN THE UNITED STATESTHE PANIC OF 1814THE PANIC OF 1825-26THE PANIC OF 183lTHE PANIC OF 1848THE PANIC OF 1857THE PANIC OF 1864THE PANIC OF 1873THE PANIC OF 1884...PANICS...STUDIED THROUGH THE BALANCES OF THE BANKS.THE CONDITION OF BUSINESS IN 1888-92THE P...

John Kenneth Galbraith's classic examination of the 1929 financial collapse.Arguing that the 1929 stock market crash was precipitated by rampant speculation in the stock market, Galbraith notes that the common denominator of all speculative episodes is the belief of participants that they can become rich without work. It was Galbraith's belief that a good knowledge of what happened in 1929 was the best safeguard against its recurrence.Atlantic Monthly

A "stimulating" account of the capitalists who changed America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, setting the stage for the 1929 crash and Great Depression ( Kirkus Reviews).In the decades following the Civil War, America entered an era of unprecedented corporate expansion, with ultimate financial power in the hands of a few wealthy industrialists who exploited the system for everything it was worth. The Rockefellers, Fords, Morgans, and Vanderbilts...

“They laid out a road map for investing that I have now been following for 57 years. There’s been no reason to look for another.”—Warren Buffett, on the writings of Benjamin GrahamLegendary investing author and philosopher Benjamin Graham lived through interesting times. Soon after his graduation from Columbia College, the nation entered the First World War. As the stock market fluctuated in wild dips and peaks, the government seized control of the railroad ...

James Grant’s story of America’s last governmentally untreated depression: A bible for conservative economists, this “carefully researched history…makes difficult economic concepts easy to understand, and it deftly mixes major events with interesting vignettes” (The Wall Street Journal).In 1920–1921, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding met a deep economic slump by seeming to ignore it, implementing policies that most 21st century economists would call bac...

Predatory lending: A problem rooted in the past that continues today.Looking for an investment return that could exceed 500 percent annually; maybe even twice that much?Private, unregulated lending to high-risk borrowers is the answer, or at least it was in the United States for much of the period from the Civil War to the onset of the early decades of the twentieth century. Newspapers called the practice loan sharking” because lenders employed the same ru...

In economics, money illusion refers to the tendency of people to think of currency in nominal, rather than real, terms. In other words, the numerical/face value (nominal value) of money is mistaken for its purchasing power (real value). This is false, as modern fiat currencies have no inherent value and their real value is derived from their ability to be exchanged for goods and used for payment of taxes. The term was coined by John Maynard Keynes in the early twentieth century. Almost eve...

Henry George on free trade! The dismal science is being reclaimed, its swamp lands drained, its jungles cleared, sunshine and free air let in; and the cheap publishers are establishing a prosperous settlement on the bogs where the owl but lately was wont to hoot its wisdom to unlistening ears. The singular success of Mr. George is that he has made Political Economy interesting. A vast deal of heresy might well be pardoned to the author who has set the average man thinking over the urgent p...

This book attempts to clear up the mystery of money in its social aspect. With the monetary system of the whole world in chaos, this mystery has never been so carefully fostered as it is to-day. And this is all the more curious inasmuch as there is not the slightest reason for this mystery. This book will show what money now is, what it does, and what it should do. From this will emerge the recognition of what has always been the true rôle of money. The standpoint from which most books on ...

What is the difference between gambling and speculation? This difficult question has posed a legal problem throughout American history. Many have argued that periodic failures by regulators to differentiate between the two have been the proximate causes of catastrophic economic downturns, including the Great Depression and the 2008 global financial crisis. In Speculation, Stuart Banner provides a sweeping history of how the fine lines separating investment, speculation, and outrig...