Great Bubbles - Reactions to the South Sea Bubble, the Mississippi Scheme and the Tulip Mania Affair (Hardcover)

Periods of euphoria followed by sudden crashes are a familiar phenomenon in economics. Such events have become known as bubbles. A bubble may be defined loosely as a sharp rise in price of an asset or a range of assets in a continuous process, with the initial rise generating expectations of further rises and attracting new buyers. The rise is then followed by a reversal of expectations and a sharp decline in price, often resulting in severe financial crisis - in short, the bubble bursts.