Following on from my post last week on Apple's bond issue, click here to read Mark Roe's piece at Project Syndicate where he discusses why it might be a good long-term strategy for Apple to return a large chuck of its $137bn cash pile to shareholders. Roe believes that Apple may be at a point in its corporate and innovation life-cycle where the cash could be wasted by its management in pursuit of the next big thing - the iThingamajig. Consequently, he argues that the cash is better in the hands of investors.
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.