Every year my Money and Banking class write blogs as part of their coursework. There was a tie this year for the top spot between Philip Ellis and Andrew Copeland. Philip's blog was a piece of analysis looking at the informal market in Vietnamese Dong. Andrew's blog looks at creative destruction in the context of bank failures and bailouts. In the runner-up spot was Claire Doran - her blog looked at the role of women in banking.
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.