A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Whittle)

Customer Reviews:

A must read for financial markets people.......2007-03-23

The real value of this book is that it will hopefully serve as a reminder to the person who has read it when that person happens to find himself in a state of financial euphoria. In that sense, it's indespensible and could be life-saver. It's a usefule piece of wisdom. But in another sense, Galbraith's analyses of various financial run-ups and crashes is a bit too tidy. Obviously at the most general level, extreme market behavior can be thematicized, so to speak, so that genearl qualities can be shown to be shared by extreme markets. And this is where Galbraith makes his point and spreads it on thick, albeit in overly stuffy tone for an economist!

Delicious Little Book on the Idiocy of the Get-Rich-Quick Mindset!.......2006-07-31

Galbraith's wonderful little book (Only 110 pages) is a quick guided tour -- with pithy analysis interspersed throughout -- of get-rich-quick movements, and, more importantly, the foolish thinking BEHIND such phenomena. Galbraith takes the reader on brief tours of some of the more notorious financial booms-gone-bad, such as the "Tulip Craze" in Holland and the Banque Royale bust in France in the 1600's, the South Seas "Bubble" of the 1700's, and, more importantly, the numerous episodes throughout American financial history, from Colonial times through the busts of 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1907, 1929 -- and 1987 (Galbraith's book was first published in 1990 -- ten years before the dot-com bust....). The source of these rush-to-riches-gone-sour, argues Galbraith, rests on several ever-consistent, historically re-occurring causes: First, the quest for leverage (i.e. generating more funds than having the means to actually support them) and lavish debt spending; Second, the pathological, recurrent inability of the financial world to learn from the past; Third, the silly notion that the possession of wealth is directly equal to a persons' intelligence (Wealthy individuals, contends Galbraith, are not rich because of brains, but more often through chance and circumstance -- a fact the public ignores at their own peril); Fourth, the incessant human desire to become affluent by the easiest means possible; Fifth, the 'religious' quality Americans consistently perscribe to "the market," i.e. that free enterprise is 'perfect' -- Corruption, loss, and falling markets are due only to "outside forces" (Like 'evil CEO's' or 'government intervention') -- rather than the public's endless supply of gullibility, culpability, and simple greed. The financial world, Galbraith brilliantly contends, is rooted in a quasi-theological outlook: Successful Wall Street moguls are treated as divine shamans; dogmatic faith in the latest financial hoopla is considered a virtue; critics are readily condemned as heretics; and once the bubble bursts, there exists a curious religious playing-out of "Sin-Fall-Guilt-Punishment," whereby the men who we once revered as financial geniuses are quickly strung-up in the court of public opinion -- sacrificial lambs for the public's own short-sightedness. Galbraith warns his readers that money-making innovations in the world of finance are simply worn-out re-workings of very, very old schemes. New bubbles emerge under new guises and fanciful terminology -- but the game remains forever the same. Once one crisis has passed, a new financial rush soon emerges, and the vicious cycle of irrationality and idiocy (Galbraith's terms) begin again. In the end, Galbraith warns his readers to be very wary of those who promise you easy wealth, and should you jump on the latest money-making bandwagon -- and most likely end up losing in the end -- don't blame anyone or anything except............YOURSELF. Excellent book!!

Good Short Book.......2006-07-26

For those in the market,this is the kind of book one needs to read to remind oneself of the madness, greed and temptation that is still so real in stock markets.Might be real handy read when those sensations start affecting in a frenzy rising market.Good , short and sharp book!

A short example of irrational personal euphoria.......2006-06-04

If euphoria is the result of unwarranted optimism based on substantial previous achievement, then Galbraith was sadly carried away by the euphoria of his own reputation in attempting this topic.

Many of his books are beacons of astute political, economic and social judgment; one of his finest, rarely if ever matched by any author, is 'The Scotch'. This book is more of a Cliff's Notes compilation of financial accidents, concluding with the wise advice to "Be Careful".

To take one example, he doesn't explain the WHY of Tulipomaniaof the 1630s. He merely concludes, "Anyone who has seen the tulip fields of this calm and pleasat land in the spring retains forever a feeling that the Tulipomania did foretell nature's true grace." Time and again he walks away from poignant examples with the obvious conclusion that sometimes something nice happens.

Financial euphoria, from what I've seen, is very much like the mania for hula hoops, basketball hoops and Beanie Babies and a Google stock IPO. The madness of crowds for new fads is a result of honest and optimistic people who want to share in a good thing. This is the basis of a prosperous society, even if it can lead to occasional financial euphoria.

Sadly, he mixes the madness of Tulipomania with the outright fraud of crooks who deliberately create a climate of excited optimism to defraud honest people. Fraud is a circus salesmen who offers "a special opportunity" to "See the Egress" for only a small fee. There's a big difference between honest promoters and cynical crooks. It makes me suspect Galbraith was never a salesman, and resolutely ignored the circus if it ever ventured near Harvard.

Galbraith ignores the vast difference between the two. One is the enthusiastic optimism of a promoter with a new idea who takes great risks to make it a reality; an example is Thomas Edison and his thousands of attempts to develop ideas into useful products. The second is the enthusiastic illusions of a trickster whose only goal is to separate the honest but optimistic people from their money; an example is Robert Vesco.

In the first case, an optimistic society with confidence in a better future can become the victim of the irrational exuberance of its expectations. This phenomena truly needs to be studied to understand irrational financial euphoria. The second is the crook who uses clever words instead of a big club to steal from anyone and everyone.

Galbraith failed to distinguish between the two or to explain the nature of either. It makes his book more of a short example of overconfidence in his own ability to be cogent, concise and relevant.

Never again - well, until the next big thing.......2006-06-02

A brief interesting, dare I say entertaining trip through the idiotic financial euphoria of the past...boy am I glad we aren't that stupid anymore, he said sarcastically. Tulip Mania and the South Sea bubble provide two of the cautionary tales. Of course, these idiotic things only look idiotic after sobering reality smacks investors in the face. Indeed one of the sure signs of euphoria is the absence of public doubters. Galbraith's short little book poses a significant challenge for purveyors of the Rational Market theory. If markets are rational, how can the bottom fall out of the market in a panic?

Highly recommended.

A Short History of the Future: Surviving the 2030 Spike

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A Short History of the Future: Surviving the 2030 Spike
Colin Mason
Manufacturer: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
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Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

* This is a revised edition of Colin Mason's "The 2030 Spike", that received the following acclaim:

* "A bold, thought-provoking and ultimately rewarding [read], well-researched, full of ideas and thus a good, all-round primer on the state
of the planet." -- BBC Wildlife

* "An impressive tour of our current world: from sexual slavery to sailing ships, from malaria to microcredits, from nanotechnology to
neopaganism, all the horrors and promises of our troubled Zeitgeist seem to be reflected here." -- Resurgence

* "Only the foolhardy would surely dare leave it unread on the shelf." -- International Affairs

Has the future a future? Are we bringing history to an end? If we look at any one of several individual but critical trends, it would appear that history might have only a short way to run.

This book describes the seven natural and human-made drivers that will converge around the year 2030 and wreak havoc:
§ depleted fuel supplies
§ massive population growth
§ poverty
§ global climate change
§ famine
§ growing water shortages
§ international lawlessness.

In this compelling book, Colin Mason explains in clear and irrefutable terms what is going on—largely below the surface of our daily or weekly news bulletins. The picture he paints is stark, and yet it is not bleak. Being forewarned, we are forearmed, and he draws on his own extensive political experience to describe how much we can do as individuals, and above all collectively, not merely to avert crisis but to engineer thoroughgoing change that can usher in genuinely sustainable and valuable alternatives to the way we live now.

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Futures Past

Manufacturer: Ace
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ASIN: 0441014542

Book Description

Change the past-and the future may come undone.

Book Description

W. Warren Wagar's A Short History of the Future is a memoir of postmodern times, cast as a history. This powerful and visionary book is narrated by a far-future historian, Peter Jensen, who leaves this account of the world from the 1990s to the opening of the twenty-third century as a gift to his granddaughter. A combination of fiction and scholarship, this third edition of Wagar's speculative history of the future alternates between descriptions of world events and intimate glimpses of his fictive historian's family into the first centuries of the new millennium.

"Thanks to Wagar's magisterial command of futurist information and theory, his extrapolated near-term future is an incisive, dynamic vision of where we may indeed be heading."—H. Bruce Franklin, Washington Post

"A comprehensive, massively detailed script of a possible near future. . . . Intriguing."—San Francisco Chronicle

"A Short History of the Future reads with ease, raises provocative possibilities and presents challenging occasions for thought and argument."—Chicago Tribune

"A breathtaking future history in the manner of Wells and Stapledon, unnerving in its mixture of fact, fiction, and personal perspectives."—George Zebrowski, New York Review of Science Fiction

Customer Reviews:

A structural, thematic, theoretical, prophetic disaster.......2007-04-05

Unfortunately, I checked out this book by reading only the blurb which, of course, presented a totally inaccurate picture. Prof Wagnar may be excused for proletariat leanings since academia is the last refuge of true believers still "waitin' for the Revolution". (That is, if you don't count such vacation hot spots as North Korea, Vietnam or Cuba.) It's not that the author was so wrong about the collapse of Marxist ideology - after all the CIA missed the boat - it's that he chose to assign moral, economic and political equivalence to the two worlds.

Anyone with an atom of sense knew, even in 1989, that the USSR was an economic disaster and falling fast, a third-world country bristling with nukes. The spectacular collapsed revealed the extent of the rot in all its ugliness. But what galled me was the lack of vision. The "story" of technology was downright embarrassing, vague and semi sci-fi. His vision (quote unquote) was woefully inadequate. Like many historians he became obsessed with political trends he sees or desires. Thus, we have the fall of capitalism, the spread of the Russian Empire, Marxism taken seriously fifty years from now (Russian-speak sounds like Lenin - LOL), the failure of SDI, the rise of Russia over China...needless to say, the exact opposite happened in every single case.

Some of the worst pleading concerned the various global governments he describes. This is his real concern and goal - Earth uniting under one political banner. For "balance" he makes a Latino, woman president start WWIII killing (he breezily reports) about 5.8 billion after which the world unites and does great things. Obvious questions arise - with the technological heart cut out (the West and particularly the US) how does Africa or South America suddenly develop this great technology? The book ends quickly - we build big spaceships, roar to the stars and find evidence of "archeological discoveries" near the star Procyon. Yeah, right. My grade - F-.

Inspiring.......2006-06-06

I first read this in the year 2000 when my thoughts were naturally attuned to wondering what the next century ahead of us would bring. I found everything I was looking for in this book, and since I was rather ignorant of what exactly Marxism and Socialism were all about, I found this a very helpful introduction.

To be clear, I'd picked up the most recent edition published in 1999, which had been rewritten to accommodate the changes that had taken place since 1989 (notably, the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had featured prominently in the first edition).

This book hasn't aged that well for me, for I now read it as slightly naïve, but it remains a book that really opened my eyes to the possibilities of political activism and how things could be different rather than just accepting a depressing status quo.

Distractingly wrong.......2004-10-16

The author of this book, Warren Wagar, is apparently a professor of "Future Studies." I certainly hope he has long been fired from that post. "A Short History of the Future" was written in 1989, but the writer is so ignorant of politics, and so WRONG, to be blunt, it reads as if it was written in the 1940's. Orwell's 1984 is more on the mark than this.

He shows barely any creativity in his "predictions" and clearly was barely even aware of much of the contemporary political developments of his time. The fact that he assumes the Soviet Union will continue plodding along well into the 21st Century is incredibly naive. The fact that he assumes the nation's socialist economy system would survive equally long is similarly bizarre. Did he read the newspapers? Did he pay ANY attention to that Gorbachev fellow and the path he was bringing Russia down?

And honestly, did anyone really expect that Germany would remain divided into two states until time immortal? Or that Latin America and Africa would remain dictatorships forever? Or that black rule in South Africa would not occur until 2014?

If this book had been written 30 or 40 ago, it would be excusable. This book is just sloppy. He doesn't even do a good job describing how his corporations take over the world. Everything is just described in these overly flowery sweeping generalizations. Like "and then the capital lords seized control of the governments and made the state wither like an autumn rose." That sort of thing.

The author is clearly an "ivory tower" academic who believes history can be predicted sorely through dry Marxist theory and analyzing dubious vague "trends." The fact that this book became horribly dated something like three years after it was published is quite a strong indictment of a man whose entire job was devoted to predicting the future.

If Nostradamus wore Birkenstocks . . .......2004-09-01

The one star I gave this schlock is for the readability of the prose. At least that has substance. As for the actual content . . . Take Marxist revolutionary theory, give it a plot and a timeline, and you have this book. The author actually used the word "bourgeoisie" as a prosaic tool. Bourgeoisie? Please.

Granted it was written some 15 years ago, before the events of 1989-90 played themselves out. Still, the fact that this howler wasn't immediately recalled en masse is illustrative.

Don't waste your money.

outdated look into the future.......2004-07-30

Reading this book ten years after it was written made it very hard to get into it. For one thing, the author still talks about the USSR and East Germany, and those countries faded away so long ago that the whole book seems dated. It's hard to suspend disbelief and imagine this book was really written far in the future.

Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia, and the Future of West Papua (Scribe Short Books)

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Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia, and the Future of West Papua (Scribe Short Books)
Clinton Fernandes
Manufacturer: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
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Book Description

Timely and provocative, this analysis challenges the orthodox views of the foreign policy establishment and its various supporters in the media by examining West Papua, Australia’s relationship with Indonesia, and Australian foreign policy in general.

Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic

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Fantasy and Politics: Visions of the Future in the Weimar Republic
Peter S. Fisher
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
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The Future of God and Organized Religion: And
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The Future of God and Organized Religion: And
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Selected Short Stories
Ben Harrison Carter
Manufacturer: iUniverse
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THE FUTURE OF Â“GODÂ” AND ORGANIZED RELIGION

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A collection of short stories with Future orientation, on topics like; cloning, eternal life, alien visitors and the effects of new technology on our world

The Geological Survey of Canada: Past achievements and future goals : a short history of the Geological Survey of Canada

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The Geological Survey of Canada: Past achievements and future goals : a short history of the Geological Survey of Canada
Robert Gordon Blackadar
Manufacturer: Minister of Supply and Services Canada
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An Illuminated History of the Future

Manufacturer: Fc2/Black Ice Books
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Past Through Tomorrow Future History Stories

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Essential Heinlein
A Master Shining Bright!
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I wonder why nobody reprints it:...
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Past Through Tomorrow Future History Stories
Robert A. Heinlein
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Customer Reviews:

Essential Heinlein.......2007-10-06

"The Past through Tomorrow" is a collection of short stories, novellas and shot novels written by Robert A. Heinlein. They all have a common context, Heinlein's Future History as conceived by the author during the 1930s and 40s. It was during this period, the author created a timeline of mankind's progress into space.

To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, this was the first attempt of anything like this on this scale. Several of these tales are considered to be classics of their genre.

We start with "Lifeline" the first published short story written by Heinlein. Hugo Pineiro has created a machine that can tell you exactly when you are going to die. Of course the insurance industry and various other interests are not amused.

Another is the classic "The Man Who Sold the Moon". Delos David Harriman was a reluctant businessman. He couldn't go to the University of Chicago to study astronomy because he had to support his family. He started in real estate then prefabricated housing on to ballistic hypersonic transport. Now he thinks the time is ripe to make possible his true ambition - a trip to the moon. Harriman has only ever wanted to go to the moon but he winds up created an interplanetary business empire and a victim of his own success.

There is "the Green Hills of Earth" where we are introduced to "Noisy" Rhysling, the blind singer of the space lanes. Blinded in an engineering room accident, he is forced to change professions and becomes a traveling musician ultimately writing the songs that defined this era in human expansion.

In "Logic of Empire" two wealthy drunken dilettantes sell themselves into indentured servitude on Venus. In "The Roads Must Road" (voted one of the greatest science fiction stories of all time) a civil servant must head off a labor strike that will cripple the U.S. economy. "The Menace from Earth" deals with young romance while indulging in a distinctly lunar past time, flying with strap-on wings.

There other stories in this volume but the reviewer will mention just one more, "Methuselah's Children". This is where we are first introduced to the Howard Families, a secret group bred for longevity. They approximately 2.5 times as long as their more ephemeral brethren. This is where RAH first introduces Woodrow Wilson Smith better known as Lazarus Long, the oldest man alive. The Howards make the mistake of revealing their existence to the world at large. Humanity drops its veneer of civilization and arrests the members of the Howards in order to torture their secret of longevity out of them.

The problem is there is no `secret'.

If you enjoy science fiction and/or Robert Heinlein, this collection is required reading. It doesn't get any better than this in any genre.

A Master Shining Bright!.......2007-09-17

Though I greatly enjoy Heinlen's writing, I didn't think I'd read very many of his short stories. Surprisingly, I had read "Life-Line", which is the first story in this book. But I didn't mind re-reading it one bit! One thing I had not realized before was that it was the first short story Heinlen had ever submitted for publication. I think the book is worth getting for it alone.

Now, not only is this book just an incredible collection of plain good 'ole fashioned story-telling at it's best, but the stories actually proceed in chronological order in the same timeline, which creates an incredible fluidity between stories. You find yourself trying to figure out how far in the future from the last story you read you are in the one you've just started.

I think of the stories in the book, "Life-Line", "The Green Hills of Earth", and "Methuselah's Children" are my favorites, though I think I enjoyed every one of them. And you have characters that flow from one story to the next, so every now and then you get to spend more time with a character that you found you enjoyed.

Do I recommend this book?! Absolutely! And despite it's thickness, it's actually great for people who aren't much into big books - because it's a collection of short stories. You can sit down and read for a half an hour or an hour and then put it down without regret. Awesome book!

Classic Heinlein Stories.......2007-04-29

The Past Through Tomorrow (1967) is an omnibus collection of the relatively short SF stories in the Future History series. These stories were originally published between 1939 and 1962. Many were first published in Astounding Science Fiction, but others first saw print in a variety of other venues. This edition includes an introduction by Damon Knight.

Life-Line (1939) tells of the man who could predict the time of death of an individual; this was Heinlein's first sale. The Roads Must Roll (1940) is about an illegal work stoppage on the mechanical roads. Blowups Happen (1940) depicts the tensions among the workers in an atomic breeder plant. The Man Who Sold the Moon (1949) relates the story of D. D Harriman and his efforts to establish a base on the Moon. Delilah and the Space-Rigger (1949) recounts the tale of the men who constructed Space Station One and the woman who came among them.

Space Jockey (1947) describes the perils of piloting a passenger ship in space. Requiem (1939) reveals the story of how D.D. Harriman finally got to the Moon. The Long Watch (1948) is a tale of duty, honor and death. Gentlemen, Be Seated (1948) tells of three men in a tunnel on the Moon that starts leaking air. The Black Pits of Luna (1947) concerns a lost child on the Moon.

"It's Great to be Back!" (1946) is a tale of homecoming for two Luna City residents. "--We Also Walk Dogs" (1941) discloses how General Services performed an unusual task for the government. Searchlight (1962) concerns another lost child on the Moon. Ordeal in Space (1947) is about a man who is afraid of falling. The Green Hills of Earth (1947) depicts the last voyage of Rhysling, the blind poet of the spaceways.

Logic of Empire (1941) exposes the reasons for slave labor in the colonies. The Menace from Earth (1947) relates the story of Holly Jones of Luna City and the beautiful tourist. "If This Goes On--" (1940) describes one man's role in the Second American Revolution against Nehemiah Scudder, the Prophet Incarnate. Coventry (1940) tells the story of a rebellious young man who defies the Covenant. Misfit (1939) portrays a young man with an unusual talent.

Methuselah's Children (1941) concerns the troubles of a group with greatly extended lifespans. This tale introduces Lazarus Long, one of Heinlein's most popular characters. This version of the story is much longer that the original and has been further extended into a series of novels.

The book also includes a chart of Heinlein's Future History upon pages 622 and 623. The chart includes the stories Universe and Common Sense, which are not contained in this omnibus. However, this chart also omits several full-length novels in this series.

Although Heinlein wrote many other stories and novels, the stories in this omnibus are probably the reason for his initial popularity within the science fiction community. Stranger in a Strange Land led to his fame within the general population, but was not treated as a cult book by SF fans. We understood a lot more about this novel than did the general public and accepted it as just another of his major works.

Highly recommended for Heinlein fans and for anyone else who enjoys classic tales of high technology, highly competent people and human values.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I wonder why nobody reprints it:..........2004-06-22

"I wonder why nobody reprints it: look at all the good marks it gets!!! "

Fantastic book, but holds way too much in the way of stories that can be (and are) printed and sold seperately.
It's unfortunate for new Sci-Fi fans, very hard to find a decent paperback copy somewhere. Mine is so worn, I need to rebind it.

Heinlein's time line of the future.......2002-07-01

John W. Campbell, editor of the sci-fi magazine "Analog" coined the term "future history" about the chain of characters and stories written by Robert A. Heinlein. It's a brilliant term, because Heinlein literally created a fictional history of an entire people, from Earth, to early space travel, to settling the moon, to moving out among the stars.

This book, astonishingly out of print, contains many of Heinlein's best short stories and novellas, filling in the gaps for his major novels such as "Time Enough for Love" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."

Heinlein apparently kept a complicated character-and-time chart in his study. This book has a copy of the chart, plus the award-winning stories and short fiction.

Included here: "Methuselah's Children"--the beginning of the story of the Howard Families that is taken up in the sweeping novel "Time Enough for Love." You'll also find stories that explain the founding of Luna City, pioneering space travel, and the revolution against the theocracy begun by Nehemiah Scudder.

If you are a Heinlein fan, this is a great book to have--fills out the gaps in his complete works. If you aren't a Heinlein fan, start with "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" or "Starship Troopers" to find out how great Heinlein's science fiction is.

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