The Great Crash 1929

Rating:
Summary: Kickin' book! I'm buying more!
Review: Yes, I'm giving several to friends. Entertaining enough to not put my Mom to sleep yet vivid enough to show her the real risks of mutual funds ("Investment Trusts" in 1929). They can't short sell in a down market. They can't go to cash and be safe or they lose people. Anyway, Galbraith does an EXCELLENT vivid job of who did what when, dispells myths, and it's free from today's free-for-all perspective to see how insane we are over stocks.

Rating:
Summary: 5-star book, read the review below
Review: You want to know how irrational and unpredictable the stock market can be? Read this book. Written in easy-to-read language, it is digested almost as easily as a mystery novel, and yet provides a deep insight into the dramatic events of 1929, and gives an invaluable historic lesson. You can clearly see the parallels between events preceding market collapse in 1929 and today high-tech stock market boom - "...there is here a basic and recurrent process. It comes with rising prices, whether of stocks, real estate, works of art or anything else. This increase attracts attention and buyers, which produces the further effect of even higher prices. Expectations are thus justified by the very action that sends prices up. The process continues; optimism with its market effect is the order of the day. Prices go up even more. Then, for reasons that will endlessly be debated, comes the end. The descent is always more sudden than the increase; a balloon that has been punctured does not deflate in an orderly way." Book goes on to describe the inaction of the Federal Reserve, trade on margin, mergers, Florida real estate boom, investment trusts, leverage, short selling, and so on. Yet, you do not need to be a financial whiz to understand it. This is definitely a 5-star book.