BIBLIOGRAPHY

Acton, John. Essays on Freedom and Power. New York: A Meridian Book, 1955.

Adams, Donald. Finance and Enterprise in Early America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978.

American Political Leaders. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2000.

Appleby, Joyce. Capitalism and a New Social Order. New York: New York University Press, 1984.

Atack, Jeremy, and Peter Passell. A New Economic View of American History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS

(compiled by Patrick Newman)

Absolutism, 23, 27, 47

Adams–Onís Treaty, 237, 245-46

Address of 1790, 87, 121, 126, 129

Address of the Minority, 67

Address to the People of the United

States, 287

Albany Regency, 199, 213, 232, 253

Alien and Sedition Acts, 125-30, 133

Alliance of Throne and Altar, 23, 25, 27, 45-46, 83, 215

American Anti-Slavery Society, 308

American Colonization Society, 241

INDEX OF NAMES

(compiled by Patrick Newman)

“A Non-Impost Man,” 53

Acton, John, 14

Adams, John, 33, 37, 44, 45, 47, 57, 72, 113, 115, 209

Adams, John Quincy, 18, 171, 219, 225, 243, 244, 263, 266, 269, 309

Adams, Robert, 305

Adams, Sam, 32-34, 37, 46, 59, 69

“Agrippa,” 67

Ames, Fisher, 68, 73-74, 75, 88, 108, 121-22

Anderson, Richard, 248

Anne, Queen, 27

Astor, John, 152, 177, 191, 194, 196, 205, 206, 216

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To Deanna,
for loving me through
the boom and the bust.

As all the world economies writhe in financial pain from the cleansing of the largest bubble in financial history, the question is being asked—how could this happen? Of course the usual answers are trotted out—human greed, animal spirits, criminal fraud, or capitalism itself. Modern financial history has been a series of booms and busts that seem to blend together making one almost indistinguishable from the next.

Speculative bubbles have occurred throughout history. These episodes are characterized by a continuous sharp rise in the price of a particular asset or group of related assets, leading to further price increases driven by new speculators seeking profits through even higher prices. These higher prices are driven by the potential profits to be made through trading, rather than the earning capacity or economic value of the asset. These speculative manias then come to abrupt and dramatic endings, as expectations change and buyers quickly become sellers, in mass.