As a graduate student, I was introduced to the influential work of Ronald Coase, the Nobel-prize-winning economist. Coase was 101 at the end of December and, incredibly, is still active. Here is a video of him giving a speech, just before his 101st birthday, on China's amazing transformation over the past three decades (hat tip to my colleague Graham Brownlow).
My colleague and former PhD student Gareth Campbell has created a website about the British Railway Mania - click here . This episode has been described by the Economist as probably the greatest bubble in human history. Gareth's website provides background on the Mania and posits some explanations for the 'bubble'. In his explanation of why the bubble happened, Gareth places a lot of emphasis on investor myopia regarding future dividends and uncalled capital. His study of investors during the episode does not support the view that this episode was fuelled by naive and irrational investors.