Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution blog), along with Alex Tabarrok, has just launched Marginal Revolution University (hat tip: Graham Brownlow). The first course they are offering is Development Economics. This is probably the most important course any finance or economics students could take as it is all about why some economies have become wealthy whilst others have become poor. The course is a series of short videos, which are well worth watching. The first lecture is below; all other lectures can be accessed at Marginal Revolution University.
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.