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Jamie Catherwood Profile picture
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10 Nov, 5 tweets, 3 min read
Take the time to read this 1886 Economist piece. Trust me. (Seriously)

An all time favorite historical source I like to re-read.

Excellent insight into human nature via a description of the Guinness IPO in 1886, and investor mania.

Gem.
This writing...

"It was doo delightful; it was betting on a certainty, or subscribing to a lottery in which all the tickets were prizes...

The world which desires money, quickly and easily made - and that world is the largest of all - was stirred to its foundations."
"Experience of one generation seldom teaches another... not one business-man in three in the City of London could write out an outline history of the last [mania].

Experience will not prevent speculative manias any more than it will prevent ambitious wars..."
"When the mood is upon them, the public will not believe in fraud, any more than thirsty soldiers will believe in poisoned water.

They see a few men making profits, and the warning that they will be made out of the latest holders is preached to deafened ears."

Cc: @WallStCynic
Can't wait to share @ProfJohnTurner 's lecture on Guinness and the 19th Century Brewery Mania for my online financial history course.

Stay up to date on the course and when it launches by subscribing below:

mailchi.mp/investoramnesi…

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More from @InvestorAmnesia

Jamie Catherwood Profile picture
23 Aug
Financial History: Sunday Reads

• IPO Pricing: The Very Long Run

• Private Origins of Private Companies

• Why Go Public?

• Five Eras of Financial Markets

• Financial Innovation & Market Access

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investoramnesia.com/2020/08/23/the…
"Proportion held, in aggregate, by the Harvard, Princeton, and Yale endowments..."

(1900 - 2013)
Two awesome charts from some of today's papers:
Read 6 tweets
Jamie Catherwood Profile picture
9 Aug
Financial History: Sunday Reads

• Electric Vehicles: A 19th Century Innovation

• Tech Revolutions: Bicycle Mania

• Sketchy Startups & The South Sea Bubble

• The Birth of Electric Cars

• The 17th Century Tech Bubble

investoramnesia.com/2020/08/09/spe…
This made my week.

The Reddit post in the second picture is a *perfect* example of the speculative pattern I discuss in today's Sunday Reads...

And as a writer, there is nothing more satisfying than knowing your work resonated with someone.
Some "new" innovations that are actually a century old:

• Electric Taxi Cab Fleets in NYC (1897)

• Electric Trucks (1899)
Read 7 tweets
Jamie Catherwood Profile picture
26 Jul
Financial History: Sunday Reads

• A Short History of Tontines

• The Allure of Public Markets

• SPACs in the South Sea Bubble?

• The Birth of Investment Trusts

• Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction

investoramnesia.com/2020/07/26/fin…
Today's Sunday Reads covers the general history of financial contraptions, but specifically SPACs and Tontines.

I answer questions like why did Bill Ackman name his SPAC after a 17th century financial contraption described as:

"Part annuity, part mortality lottery"
Tontines are crucial to American history.

After signing the Buttonwood Agreement, the brokers needed a place to conduct business, and settled on a coffee shop.

A tontine financed construction of the "The Tontine Coffee House", which later evolved into the NYSE.
Read 4 tweets
Jamie Catherwood Profile picture
16 Jul
Quick Super Thread on what I've been covering at Investor Amnesia during COVID-19.

To continue receiving these financial history insights each week, subscribe below.

History is a particularly sought after resource these days, so share this thread!

mailchi.mp/investoramnesi…
The first dive into Pandemics and Financial Markets:

investoramnesia.com/2020/03/01/pan…
A look at market crashes and further research on the history of Pandemics:

investoramnesia.com/2020/03/29/pan…
Read 14 tweets
Jamie Catherwood Profile picture
2 Jul
Wow. This article from 1896 sounds familiar.

A slight raise in rates by the Bank of England spooked investors that had grown accustomed to 'cheap money'.

Make sure to read this thread. Fascinating stuff.
"Such a system works comfortably and profitably enough as long as the 'cheap money,' which is at once its basis and its effect, continues."
Cheap Money (1896)

"Speculators [got] an effective warning that they could not count on the reality of their dream of perpetual cheap money...

And amply proved that the dangers to which a long period of abundant credit had been said to expose... markets simply shriveled up"
Read 4 tweets
Jamie Catherwood Profile picture
30 Jun
FASCINATING article from the Spectator in 1890.

Robinhood traders:
Sound familiar? Increased retail speculation caused by:

• "A fall in the rate of interest, which tempts men otherwise averse from risk to improve their incomes"

• "The very decided increase in the habit of betting, which extends itself to everything"
What is the kind of speculator that succeeds?
Read 6 tweets

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