A Gold Classics Library Selection
Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds
Stock speculators, Paris, 1720, Mississippi Land Bubble
Charles Mackay in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and Madness of Crowds, written in 1841, unwittingly provides us one of the better studies of modern market behavior. I doubt Mackay would have guessed that his book would be read, digested and taken as revelation by readers in the 21st century. At the same time, he probably would have not been surprised that the pull of the same dark gravity that caused people to throw their fortunes at tulip bulbs in Holland, or land they never had a hope of seeing in the New World, would be omnipresent in the age of computers, instantaneous communication, and the nearly infinite availability of market analysis. The highly successful speculator and gold investor Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) put his blessing on this book as one of the secrets to his success on Wall Street.
Said Baruch:
“Have you ever seen in some wood, on a sunny quiet day, a cloud of flying midges — thousands of them — hovering, apparently motionless, in a sunbeam? …Yes? …Well, did you ever see the whole flight — each mite apparently preserving its distance from all others — suddenly move, say three feet, to one side or the other? Well, what made them do that? A breeze? I said a quiet day. But try to recall — did you ever see them move directly back again in the same unison? Well, what made them do that? Great human mass movements are slower of inception but much more effective.”
So we bring you Charles Mackay and his Extraordinary Popular Delusions with our own sense of mission. If the rising generations now receiving their education, or even their more jaded elders, find application in their own investment philosophy, then the purpose of this Gold Classic Library entry has been served. Complicated and timelessly revealing, here you will find examples of herd behavior, delusion, mania, craftiness, and financial loss and gain. Solomon taught us that there are no new things under the sun. Mackay teaches us how we might recognize the signs and that the crowd gone mad is a matter to be reckoned with in almost every era.
