John Kenneth Galbraith
Discover how a mixture of unchecked leverage, speculative mania, and expert reassurance drove the 1929 stock market collapse, offering timeless lessons on why financial bubbles form and inevitably burst.
Speculative bubbles are driven by a widespread cultural conviction that individuals can acquire limitless wealth without productive work, creating a self-reinforcing loop of market euphoria.
Margin buying and complex corporate holding structures amplify both the rapid ascent of asset prices and the devastating velocity of the subsequent crash.
Rising markets systematically create the "bezzle," a temporary gap between perceived wealth and actual economic value that artificially boosts spending until the illusion is exposed.