TIP784: History's Biggest Market Bubbles w/ Clay Finck
We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network
How Momentum and Leverage Inflated South Sea
Clay shows how insiders, government backing, and margin purchases amplified price rises and investor mania.
In this episode, Clay reviews Devil Take the Hindmost by Edward Chancellor and explores three of the most infamous market bubbles in financial history: the South Sea Bubble of 1720, the Railway Mania of 1845, and Japan’s asset bubble of the late 1980s.
These case studies examine how greed, leverage, speculation, and misplaced faith in government or institutions repeatedly led investors to abandon fundamentals.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:59 - Why financial bubbles repeat throughout history despite changing technologies and markets 00:03:14 - The key psychological forces that drive speculative manias 00:04:47 - How speculation differs from long-term investing, and where the line often gets crossed 00:25:25 - The role governments, institutions, and incentives play in fueling bubbles 00:34:35 - Why leverage amplifies both gains and losses during periods of extreme speculation 01:03:44 - Key lessons from history’s biggest bubbles Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.
BOOKS AND RESOURCES
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- Edward Chancellor’s book: Devil Take the Hindmost.
- Related Episode TIP729: Mastering the Capital Cycle w/ Clay Finck.
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- Related books mentioned in the podcast.
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