Unfortunately the people who got screwed the most during the Great Housing Bubble were the ones who had no knowledge of historic manias and bubbles. "It's a new paradigm!". "If we don't buy now we'll be priced out forever!". "Everyone's getting rich!". And on and on.
Well, we all know now how that turned out.
Here's a primer on another classic bubble - the South Sea Bubble of 1720. Man, we still laugh and laugh about that one. Love the tulips too. But now, before our own eyes, we've seen the biggest financial bubble and mania in the history of humanity.
Here's to you world. You did it. You are officially more financially stupid and greedy than any other generation that ever came before you!
The South Sea Company (1711 – c1850s) was an English company granted a monopoly to trade with South America under a treaty with Spain. Following the South Sea Company Act of 1720, it became better known for the "South Sea Bubble", an economic bubble that occurred through overheated speculation in the company shares. The stock price collapsed after reaching a peak in September 1720.
