Some of the
authors at Education News sent me a
neat infographic after reading one of my previous posts on the higher education
bubble. Click here to see it. The
accumulation of debt by US students to pay for their education is such that the
sum of total student debt exceeds the sum of total credit card debt in the
US! My fear is that the UK will
eventually head in the same direction, with ever-increasing tuition fees being
paid for by an ever-increasing student debt.
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.