The section ‘Blowing Bubbles’ of the book “The Ascent of Money” raises an important question such as what is the reason for producing bubbles and busts within the stock exchange. Niall Ferguson returns to the fundamental basis of the incorporated business in two major cities – Paris and Amsterdam.
Moreover, the author shows the connection and similarities between the present collapse of a stock market and the Enron default along with a Mississippi Bubble of the eighteenth century that was created by John Law, a financial entrepreneur from Scotland. Furthermore, Niall Ferguson answers a question of why people follow a flocking instinct in matters relating to money and financial investments, and why virtually all attempts to meticulously predict the outcome for these investments are not able to succeed.
Chapter Three ‘Blowing Bubbles’ focuses on probably one of the most outstanding objects within the subject of an economy – the joint-stock company. Some may consider the development of limited-liability organizations as a glorious event in modern history and economy. The author even accurately labels it, as the case may be, the distinct excellent Dutch creation of all times. The joint-stock company provides an opportunity for a person to merge properties and supplies without jeopardizing not only every item in the possession of an aforementioned person but a whole fortune.
Despite the hypothesis of the command of attentive stockholders above the administration through a non-managerial directory, it appears to be that hundreds of thousands of stockholders are willing to purchase constantly and auction the imperceptible negligible piece of an organization, thus trying to evaluate the forthcoming available funds it supposedly will receive. As a result, a stock exchange becomes filled with a shared by many individuals’ attitudes, which follows five established paths.
John Law was the first person to devise a stock bubble. The formation of VOC, which is short for the United East India Company in 1602, became an authentic turning mark. By 1650 the proceeds and dividends of the company were extensively bartered; after establishing control over the merchandise trades from Asia the VOC became an enormous cost-effective organization, which was administered by the contemporary approaches towards management, administration, and partnership. Law was enclosed by the financial novelties; furthermore, he wanted to integrate the ownership of an organization and the exclusive issuance of notes.
France was an ideal country for implementing his idea due to the large national after-war debt. Law attracted more and more shareholders to this scheme by the potential for forthcoming income and higher face values; the prices of dividends escalated due to the printing of excess money, and John Law was devising a bubble. The United Kingdom has been implicated in an analogous South Sea Bubble, but with fewer losses for people and the stock market.
On 29 October 1929, the most dreadful collapse of the stock market happened. Before 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased by 89% and it was back on the previous stage in 1954. The countries that were most affected by the depression were the United States and Germany: more than ten thousand banks in the USA have gone bankrupt. The government decided to intervene in the market activity candidly only in 1932, leading to a positive result. The acceleration of civic arrears and investments was invaded by incessant speculative bubbles, which resulted in developing a more practical stock economy of Great Britain.