≡ Menu

Expanded Edition of French’s Early Speculative Bubbles

by Stephan Kinsella on February 10, 2024

Longtime PFS member Doug French (see his various articles about previous PFS meetings here) has updated and expanded his work Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases In The Supply of Money. It should be available in early March. From the Amazon description:

Dive into the Untold Story of Historical Bubbles: Discover the Monetary Secrets Behind World’s Greatest Economic Mysteries.

For the discerning reader with a passion for economic history, Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases In The Supply of Money: 4th Expanded Edition opens the vault to the past’s most captivating financial enigmas. Douglas E. French masterfully charts a course through history’s turbulent monetary waters, revealing the underlying currents that drove the world’s most talked-about economic bubbles.

Dive deep into the heart of 17th-century Netherlands, a realm where the simple tulip bulb became the center of an economic whirlwind, the legendary Tulipmania. But was it mere human folly that drove this frenzy? French challenges popular theories, spotlighting the unobserved governmental interventions and money supply explosions that truly fanned the flames.

Travel from the illustrious trading floors where the South Sea Bubble and Panic of 1857 were born, to the gilded coasts of California during its monumental gold rush. Each tale unravels a consistent thread: the hidden hand of government meddling and the intoxication of rapid money creation.

This 4th edition, building upon French’s esteemed Master’s thesis and expanded with fresh insights, serves as a bridge connecting past economic phenomena with present-day market dynamics. Readers will be astounded by the striking parallels between yesteryears’ bubbles and today’s financial headlines, each underscored by similar patterns of low interest rates, easy credit, and sweeping public euphoria.

With Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases In The Supply of Money, you’re not just reading economic history. You’re gaining a lens to view, understand, and anticipate the financial ebbs and flows of tomorrow.

{ 0 comments… add one }

You must log in to post a comment. Log in now.

Next post: Hoppe, “An Open Letter to Walter E. Block”

Previous post: PFS 2024 Annual Meeting—Speakers and Topics

2025 Annual Meeting of the PFS

As noted here, the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Property and Freedom Society was held from Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 (arrivals) to Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024 (departures), in Bodrum, Turkey, at the Hotel Karia Princess. Details about the 2025 meeting will be announced presently.

Those interested in attending should contact Dr. Hoppe or Mr. Thomas Jacob (jacob@pfs-zurich.ch) (Administrative Secretary/Membership), regarding conditions, availability, and requirements.

Speakers and topics for previous Annual Meetings may be found here.

PFS Youtube channel • Odysee backup channel

Archives

Donate

To donate with BITCOIN please use the address below. If you would like us to credit your payment (for dues, conference fees, etc.) please email Stephan Kinsella (nskinsella@gmail.com) when you make the bitcoin payment.

17M9V6m5X5Da4vNM5wWLjzcHz9qF36FPk6

“Property does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property.” — Frédéric Bastiat

“Because the concept of property, for instance, is so basic that everyone seems to have some immediate understanding of it, most people never think about it carefully and can, as a consequence, produce at best a very vague definition. But starting from imprecisely stated or assumed definitions and building a complex network of thought upon them can lead only to intellectual disaster. For the original imprecisions and loopholes will then pervade and distort everything derived from them. To avoid this, the concept of property must first be clarified.” —Hans-Hermann Hoppe, TSC, ch. 2

The Property and Freedom Society (PFS; Facebook) stands for an uncompromising intellectual radicalism: for justly acquired private property, freedom of contract, freedom of association—which logically implies the right to not associate with, or to discriminate against—anyone in one's personal and business relations—and unconditional free trade. It condemns imperialism and militarism and their fomenters, and champions peace. It rejects positivism, relativism, and egalitarianism in any form, whether of "outcome" or "opportunity," and it has an outspoken distaste for politics and politicians. As such it seeks to avoid any association with the policies and proponents of interventionism, which Ludwig von Mises identified in 1946 as the fatal flaw in the plan of the many earlier and contemporary attempts by intellectuals alarmed by the rising tide of socialism and totalitarianism to found an anti-socialist ideological movement. Mises wrote: "What these frightened intellectuals did not comprehend was that all those measures of government interference with business which they advocated are abortive. ... There is no middle way. Either the consumers are supreme or the government."

(A more complete statement of our Principles can be found here.)