The Share Centre's shareradio station has an interesting series of podcasts on the History of Booms, Busts and Bubbles - click here. In this podcast, Richard Grossman gives an interview about the Israeli Bank Stock Crisis of 1983. I didn't know much about this crisis until I listened to this podcast, but is a fascintating story. The crisis was so severe that Israeli banks had to be nationalised. The really interesting thing to me was that Israeli banks (and their pension funds) were buying their own shares!
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.