Thursday, December 18, 2008

tulips, art, bubbles

Modern Missives on tulips and art and markets, here.

In the winter of 1636-37, ownership of tulips bulbs sometimes changed hands up to 10 times a day. But then the crash came from a single ill-fated auction in Haarlem, when the precious bulbs failed to fetch their running price. Panic spread throughout the lowlands, and the market instantly evaporated.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The article would have benefited from being a bit more honest about the numbers, esp. as percentages are incredibly fudgable when not put into context. Rather than saying Well we have a HUGE number here and a TINY number here...What do YOU think? go ahead and consider Art Market value as a percentage of stock market value or GDP or personal wealth growth or something that doesn't allow for this insane numbers relativity?

Moreso though, really just tired of all the We Know Better.