President Obama tackled inequality head on in his State of the Union address yesterday. Michael Spence, a Nobel laureate, discusses in this Project Syndicate op-ed some of the ways in which inequality can be tackled without harming economic growth. You can read a selection of articles on inequality at Project Syndicate's Unequal at Any Speed.
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.