--OT-- The funny thing is
You can get the book for 15.95$ on AMZN website.... ;-)
amazon.com
Reviews
Amazon.com
Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of
idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into harebrained
speculative frenzies -- only to jump broker-like out of
windows when their fantasies dissolve? We may think that the Great
Crash of 1929, junk bonds of the '80s, and overvalued high-tech stocks
of the '90s are peculiarly 20th century aberrations, but the excerpts
of these two classics--first published in 1841 and 1688,
respectively--show that the madness and confusion of crowds knows no
limits, and has no temporal bounds. These are extraordinarily
illuminating and, unfortunately, entertaining tales of chicanery,
greed, and naivete. Essential reading for any student of human nature
or the transmission of ideas.
In fact, cases such as Tulipomania in 1624--when tulip bulbs traded at
a higher price than gold--suggest the existence of what I would dub
"Mackay's Law of Mass Action": when it comes to the effect of social
behavior on the intelligence of individuals, 1+1 is often considerably
less than 1, and sometimes less than 0.
Synopsis
A study of crowd behavior includes two landmark books of the past,
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and
Confusions de Confusions, that show how markets are shaped by the
fluctuations of mob psychology. |
