Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

I'm actually-- When I look at all these new tech companies that are trying to take advantage of big data, and crowdfunding, and crowd wisdom, I'm reminded that the place where we've dealt with crowds for the longest time is financial markets.

And my favorite book of all time is called The Madness of Crowds.

It's a book that's a hundred and fifty years old.

It's actually by Charles Mackay.

That was first published in 1976.

One of my favorites, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles McKay.

That was first published in 1841.

And and then Against the Gods by Peter L. Bernstein back in 1996.

The book is called The Madness of Markets.

And of course, it brings to mind Charles Mackay's famous book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, a book also about bubbles, the South Sea bubble, the tulip craze in 17th century Holland.

Should we be, are you arguing in the madness of markets that we need to, particularly in our social media age, where we all seem to be intoxicated by one kind of crowd or another, we need to shut us, if we want to be a smart investor, we need to shut ourselves away in a room, away from the crowds?

Yes, because often we think that crowds may be wise.