No, not the history of soap bubbles.
But the history of asset inflation bubbles. Housing bubbles, stock market bubbles, dot com bubbles who-knows-what bubbles. They all ended up the same way. But I want to research how/when they began, how long they lasted for and what were the events that led up to their popping.
Is thier book which explains and gives a history of this?
Ah yes, you ask why? I want to be able to forecast future bubbles, and profit from them.
Dangerous but clever plan, eh?
There is indeed a book that covers some early inflationary bubbles called Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases in the Money Supply, by Douglas E. French. A lot of the information in the book on Tulipmania is offered elsewhere on this website. The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics offers the article The Dutch Monetary Environment During Tulipmania, which covers the inflationary policies during the time. The Truth About Tulipmania also covers Tulipmania, and is also by Doug French. Blowing Bubbles is the introduction to French's book. Murray N. Rothbard has a case study called America's Great Depression, and also offers A History of Money and Banking in the United States, which naturally covers inflationary bubbles throughout the history of the United States, and finally there is Panic of 1819. Another good book on the Great Depression, which I'm reading right now, although not as good as Rothbard's (in analysis and completness) is Garet Garret's The Bubble that Broke the World.
An understanding of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory is probably the best way to "forecast" future bubbles (being able to see the government's inflationary fiscal policy). Authors on this website had foreseen the recession since as early as 2004.
Economic Thought (Latest Post): Don't Be Fooled by GDP
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