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Highly speculative publicly-traded businesses have been around as long as there have been stock markets and aren't new at all. Historians have suggested that in
by tomkarlo 13y ago
Highly speculative publicly-traded businesses have been around as long as there have been stock markets and aren't new at all. Historians have suggested that in the 1850s/1860s more money was made selling shares in mining companies than was ever mined out of the ground. In the 80s you had the S&Ls and the post-deregulation airlines. Then the Dot Coms and Enrons of 2000 era. Everyone just tends to conveniently forget, because the companies disappear and our memories are short.
- acjohnson55 13y agoThe book Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy by William Janeway has a fantastic history of speculative bubbles and venture capital, and then some. It's a tough book to read if you don't have a background in finance and econ, but it's well worth the effort if you want to understand Western capitalism in practice.