TED talks make the work of academics and thinkers accessible to wide audiences. Why do we have economic prosperity? Why are some economies more prosperous than others? In the TED talk below, Niall Ferguson gives an entertaining and provocative 18-minute lecture where he identifies six "killer apps" which gave us economic prosperity.
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.