I have to add an amusing quote from John Kenneth Galbraith about the sky-high stock prices before the crash of 1929: By far the greatest force for sobriety was

I have to add an amusing quote from John Kenneth Galbraith about the sky-high stock prices before the crash of 1929: By far the greatest force for sobriety was the New York Times. Under the guidance of the veteran Alexander Dana Noyes, its financial page was all but immune to the blandishments of the New Era. A regular reader could not doubt that a day of reckoning was expected. Also, on several occasions it reported, much too prematurely, that the day of reckoning had arrived. Indeed the temporary breaks in the market which preceded the crash were a serious trial for those who had declined fantasy. Early in 1928, in June, in December, and in Februrary and March of 1929 it seemed that the end had come. On various of these occasions the [New York] Times happily reported the return to reality. And then the market took flight again. Only a durable sense of doom could survive such discouragement. The time was coming when the optimists would reap a rich harvest of discredit. But is has long since been forgotten that for many months those who resisted reassurance were similarly, if less permantently, discredited. To say that the Times, when the real crash came, reported the event with jubilation would be an exaggeration. Nevertheless, it coverted it with an unmistakable absence of sorrow - John Kenneth Galbraith, "The Great Crash 1929" http://www.amazon.com/Great-Crash-1929-Kenneth-Galbraith/dp/0547248164 http://www.amazon.com/Great-Crash-1929-Kenneth-Galbraith/dp/...