Unsurprisingly, from my perspective, President Obama was re-elected in the US election. How did Wall St react? The Dow Jones fell by 2.36% and the Nasdaq fell by 2.48%. Why? One possibility is that Obama's re-election means that the fiscal cliff crisis will occur again within a matter of weeks. Another possibility is that Wall St wanted Romney as his policies were pro-business.
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.