2013年2月17日星期日

Newton's Nightmare


"I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."

                                                                       --- Isaac Newton
    
    Throughout history, one topic appears again and again - How to make money quickly!
    In 1720, the whole of England became involved with The south sea bubble as is well-known.
    The direct cause of this event is that as the House of Lords passed the South Sea Bill, their shares immediately increased to 10 times their value, speculation ran wild and all sorts of companies, some lunatic, some fraudulent or just optimistic were launched. The country went wild, stock prices increased in that period, and huge capitals were made at that time.


    In 1718, England government has amounted to around 30 million pounds national debt. In order to ease the financial stress, the government made a bold decision, selling the equity of the south sea company to the public. After that, under the government's connivance, the management of south sea company started to hype their stock, creating illusions of grandeur in the minds of investors and shareholders. In a short period of time,  the south sea company issued increasingly equities to the market, results were the only thing that mattered to south sea company’s stock was balloon, even Isaac Newton had invested the south sea company shares over 20,000 pounds. During that amazing time, it was extremely fashionable to own south sea company equities.....

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