Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes

Download Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030791823
Total Pages : 619 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (37 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes by : Harold L. Vogel

Download or read book Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes written by Harold L. Vogel and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-12-17 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economists broadly define financial asset price bubbles as episodes in which prices rise with notable rapidity and depart from historically established asset valuation multiples and relationships. Financial economists have for decades attempted to study and interpret bubbles through the prisms of rational expectations, efficient markets, equilibrium, arbitrage, and capital asset pricing models, but they have not made much if any progress toward a consistent and reliable theory that explains how and why bubbles (and crashes) evolve and are defined, measured, and compared. This book develops a new and different approach that is based on the central notion that bubbles and crashes reflect urgent short-side rationing, which means that, as such extreme conditions unfold, considerations of quantities owned or not owned begin to displace considerations of price.

Bubbles and Crashes

Download Bubbles and Crashes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 1503607933
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (36 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Bubbles and Crashes by : Brent Goldfarb

Download or read book Bubbles and Crashes written by Brent Goldfarb and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An interesting take on some factors that facilitate the development and bursting of bubbles in technology industries. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice Financial market bubbles are recurring, often painful, reminders of the costs and benefits of capitalism. While many books have studied financial manias and crises, most fail to compare times of turmoil with times of stability. In Bubbles and Crashes, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch give us new insights into the causes of speculative booms and busts. They identify a class of assets—major technological innovations—that can, but does not necessarily, produce bubbles. This methodological twist is essential: Only by comparing similar events that sometimes lead to booms and busts can we ascertain the root causes of bubbles. Using a sample of eighty-eight technologies spanning 150 years, Goldfarb and Kirsch find that four factors play a key role in these episodes: the degree of uncertainty surrounding a particular innovation; the attentive presence of novice investors; the opportunity to directly invest in companies that specialize in the technology; and whether or not a technology is a good protagonist in a narrative. Goldfarb and Kirsch consider the implications of their analysis for technology bubbles that may be in the works today, offer tools for investors to identify whether a bubble is happening, and propose policy measures that may mitigate the risks associated with future speculative episodes.

Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes

Download Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521199674
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes by : Harold L. Vogel

Download or read book Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes written by Harold L. Vogel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-12-14 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One would think that economists would by now have already developed a solid grip on how financial bubbles form and how to measure and compare them. This is not the case. Despite the thousands of articles in the professional literature and the millions of times that the word "bubble" has been used in the business press, there still does not appear to be a cohesive theory or persuasive empirical approach with which to study "bubble" and "crash" conditions. This book presents what is meant to be a plausible and accessible descriptive theory and empirical approach to the analysis of such financial market conditions. It advances such a framework through application of standard econometric methods to its central idea, which is that financial bubbles reflect urgent short side rationed demand. From this basic idea, an elasticity of variance concept is developed. The notion that easy credit provides fuel for bubbles is supported. It is further shown that a behavioral risk premium can probably be measured and related to the standard equity risk premium models in a way that is consistent with conventional theory.

Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes

Download Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316101576
Total Pages : 581 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (161 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes by : Harold L. Vogel

Download or read book Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes written by Harold L. Vogel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-12-14 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the thousands of articles and the millions of times that the word 'bubble' has been used in the business press, there still does not appear to be a cohesive theory or persuasive empirical approach with which to study 'bubble' and 'crash' conditions. This book presents a plausible and accessible descriptive theory and empirical approach to the analysis of such financial market conditions. It advances such a framework through application of standard econometric methods to its central idea, which is that financial bubbles reflect urgent short side rationed demand. From this basic idea, an elasticity of variance concept is developed. It is further shown that a behavioral risk premium can probably be measured and related to the standard equity risk premium models in a way that is consistent with conventional theory.

Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes, Second Edition

Download Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes, Second Edition PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319715283
Total Pages : 477 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (197 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes, Second Edition by : Harold L. Vogel

Download or read book Financial Market Bubbles and Crashes, Second Edition written by Harold L. Vogel and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economists broadly define financial asset price bubbles as episodes in which prices rise with notable rapidity and depart from historically established asset valuation multiples and relationships. Financial economists have for decades attempted to study and interpret bubbles through the prisms of rational expectations, efficient markets, and equilibrium, arbitrage, and capital asset pricing models, but they have not made much if any progress toward a consistent and reliable theory that explains how and why bubbles (and crashes) evolve and can also be defined, measured, and compared. This book develops a new and different approach that is based on the central notion that bubbles and crashes reflect urgent short-side rationing, which means that, as such extreme conditions unfold, considerations of quantities owned or not owned begin to displace considerations of price.

Why Stock Markets Crash

Download Why Stock Markets Crash PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400885094
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Why Stock Markets Crash by : Didier Sornette

Download or read book Why Stock Markets Crash written by Didier Sornette and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scientific study of complex systems has transformed a wide range of disciplines in recent years, enabling researchers in both the natural and social sciences to model and predict phenomena as diverse as earthquakes, global warming, demographic patterns, financial crises, and the failure of materials. In this book, Didier Sornette boldly applies his varied experience in these areas to propose a simple, powerful, and general theory of how, why, and when stock markets crash. Most attempts to explain market failures seek to pinpoint triggering mechanisms that occur hours, days, or weeks before the collapse. Sornette proposes a radically different view: the underlying cause can be sought months and even years before the abrupt, catastrophic event in the build-up of cooperative speculation, which often translates into an accelerating rise of the market price, otherwise known as a "bubble." Anchoring his sophisticated, step-by-step analysis in leading-edge physical and statistical modeling techniques, he unearths remarkable insights and some predictions--among them, that the "end of the growth era" will occur around 2050. Sornette probes major historical precedents, from the decades-long "tulip mania" in the Netherlands that wilted suddenly in 1637 to the South Sea Bubble that ended with the first huge market crash in England in 1720, to the Great Crash of October 1929 and Black Monday in 1987, to cite just a few. He concludes that most explanations other than cooperative self-organization fail to account for the subtle bubbles by which the markets lay the groundwork for catastrophe. Any investor or investment professional who seeks a genuine understanding of looming financial disasters should read this book. Physicists, geologists, biologists, economists, and others will welcome Why Stock Markets Crash as a highly original "scientific tale," as Sornette aptly puts it, of the exciting and sometimes fearsome--but no longer quite so unfathomable--world of stock markets.

Boom and Bust

Download Boom and Bust PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108369359
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (83 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Boom and Bust by : William Quinn

Download or read book Boom and Bust written by William Quinn and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do stock and housing markets sometimes experience amazing booms followed by massive busts and why is this happening more and more frequently? In order to answer these questions, William Quinn and John D. Turner take us on a riveting ride through the history of financial bubbles, visiting, among other places, Paris and London in 1720, Latin America in the 1820s, Melbourne in the 1880s, New York in the 1920s, Tokyo in the 1980s, Silicon Valley in the 1990s and Shanghai in the 2000s. As they do so, they help us understand why bubbles happen, and why some have catastrophic economic, social and political consequences whilst others have actually benefited society. They reveal that bubbles start when investors and speculators react to new technology or political initiatives, showing that our ability to predict future bubbles will ultimately come down to being able to predict these sparks.

Bubbles and Crashes in Experimental Asset Markets

Download Bubbles and Crashes in Experimental Asset Markets PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 3642021476
Total Pages : 179 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (42 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Bubbles and Crashes in Experimental Asset Markets by : Stefan Palan

Download or read book Bubbles and Crashes in Experimental Asset Markets written by Stefan Palan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-10-03 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes a laboratory experiment designed to test the causes and properties of bubbles in financial markets and explores the question whether it is possible to design markets which avoid such bubbles and crashes. In the experiment, subjects were given the opportunity to trade in a stock market modeled after the seminal work of Smith et al. (1988). To account for the increasing importance of online betting sites, subjects were also allowed to trade in a digital option market. The outcomes shed new light on how subjects form and update their expectations, placing special emphasis on the bounded rationality of investors. Various analytical bubble measures found in the literature are collected, calculated, classified and presented for the first time. The very interesting new bubble measures "Dispersion Ratio", "Overpriced Transactions" and "Underpriced Transactions" are developed, making the book an important step towards the research goal of preventing bubbles and crashes in financial markets.

Bubbles, Booms, and Busts

Download Bubbles, Booms, and Busts PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1493910922
Total Pages : 351 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (939 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Bubbles, Booms, and Busts by : Donald Rapp

Download or read book Bubbles, Booms, and Busts written by Donald Rapp and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-14 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals at some length with the question: Since there are many more poor than rich, why don’t the poor just tax the rich heavily and reduce the inequality? In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the topic of inequality was discussed widely. Ending or reducing inequality was a prime motivating factor in the emergence of communism and socialism. The book discusses why later in the 20th century, inequality has faded out as an issue. Extensive tables and graphs of data are presented showing the extent of inequality in America, as well as globally. It is shown that a combination of low taxes on capital gains contributed to a series of real estate and stock bubbles that provided great wealth to the top tiers, while real income for average workers stagnated. Improved commercial efficiency due to computers, electronics, the Internet and fast transport allowed production and distribution with fewer workers, just as the advent of electrification, mechanization, production lines, vehicles and trains in the 1920s and 1930s produced the same stagnating effect.

Asset Price Bubbles

Download Asset Price Bubbles PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262582537
Total Pages : 650 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (825 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Asset Price Bubbles by : William Curt Hunter

Download or read book Asset Price Bubbles written by William Curt Hunter and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of asset price bubbles and the implications for preventing financial instability.

Asset Pricing Under Asymmetric Information

Download Asset Pricing Under Asymmetric Information PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780198296980
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (969 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Asset Pricing Under Asymmetric Information by : Markus Konrad Brunnermeier

Download or read book Asset Pricing Under Asymmetric Information written by Markus Konrad Brunnermeier and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2001 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of information is central to the academic debate on finance. This book provides a detailed, current survey of theoretical research into the effect on stock prices of the distribution of information, comparing and contrasting major models. It examines theoretical models that explain bubbles, technical analysis, and herding behavior. It also provides rational explanations for stock market crashes. Analyzing the implications of asymmetries in information is crucial in this area. This book provides a useful survey for graduate students.

From Catastrophe to Chaos: A General Theory of Economic Discontinuities

Download From Catastrophe to Chaos: A General Theory of Economic Discontinuities PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9401716137
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (17 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis From Catastrophe to Chaos: A General Theory of Economic Discontinuities by : J. Barkley Rosser

Download or read book From Catastrophe to Chaos: A General Theory of Economic Discontinuities written by J. Barkley Rosser and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Catastrophe to Chaos: A General Theory of Economic Discontinuities presents and unusual perspective on economics and economic analysis. Current economic theory largely depends upon assuming that the world is fundamentally continuous. However, an increasing amount of economic research has been done using approaches that allow for discontinuities such as catastrophe theory, chaos theory, synergetics, and fractal geometry. The spread of such approaches across a variety of disciplines of thought has constituted a virtual intellectual revolution in recent years. This book reviews the applications of these approaches in various subdisciplines of economics and draws upon past economic thinkers to develop an integrated view of economics as a whole from the perspective of inherent discontinuity.

Why Stock Markets Crash

Download Why Stock Markets Crash PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691175950
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Why Stock Markets Crash by : Didier Sornette

Download or read book Why Stock Markets Crash written by Didier Sornette and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scientific study of complex systems has transformed a wide range of disciplines in recent years, enabling researchers in both the natural and social sciences to model and predict phenomena as diverse as earthquakes, global warming, demographic patterns, financial crises, and the failure of materials. In this book, Didier Sornette boldly applies his varied experience in these areas to propose a simple, powerful, and general theory of how, why, and when stock markets crash. Most attempts to explain market failures seek to pinpoint triggering mechanisms that occur hours, days, or weeks before the collapse. Sornette proposes a radically different view: the underlying cause can be sought months and even years before the abrupt, catastrophic event in the build-up of cooperative speculation, which often translates into an accelerating rise of the market price, otherwise known as a "bubble." Anchoring his sophisticated, step-by-step analysis in leading-edge physical and statistical modeling techniques, he unearths remarkable insights and some predictions--among them, that the "end of the growth era" will occur around 2050. Sornette probes major historical precedents, from the decades-long "tulip mania" in the Netherlands that wilted suddenly in 1637 to the South Sea Bubble that ended with the first huge market crash in England in 1720, to the Great Crash of October 1929 and Black Monday in 1987, to cite just a few. He concludes that most explanations other than cooperative self-organization fail to account for the subtle bubbles by which the markets lay the groundwork for catastrophe. Any investor or investment professional who seeks a genuine understanding of looming financial disasters should read this book. Physicists, geologists, biologists, economists, and others will welcome Why Stock Markets Crash as a highly original "scientific tale," as Sornette aptly puts it, of the exciting and sometimes fearsome--but no longer quite so unfathomable--world of stock markets.

The Last Three Stock Market Crashes. Can Boom and Bust Be Predicted?

Download The Last Three Stock Market Crashes. Can Boom and Bust Be Predicted? PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3656956332
Total Pages : 18 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (569 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Last Three Stock Market Crashes. Can Boom and Bust Be Predicted? by : Arthur Ritter

Download or read book The Last Three Stock Market Crashes. Can Boom and Bust Be Predicted? written by Arthur Ritter and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 15 (2,0), University of St Andrews (School of Management), course: Corporate Financial Management, language: English, abstract: Stock market crashes had occurred in the financial market since the very beginning and in every generation (Sornette, 2003a). “Greed, hubris and systemic fluctuations have given us the Tulip Mania, the South Sea bubble, the land booms in the 1920s and 1980s, the U.S. stock market and great crash in 1929, the October 1987 crash, to name just a few of the hundreds of ready examples“ (Sornette, 2003a, p. 7.). This essay will compare and contrast the last three major stock market crashes in 1987, 2000 and 2007. To do this, the essay will pay special emphasis on the causes of the three crashes. From there the essay will draw out the similarities and differences and will answer the question if boom and bust can be predicted.

The World of Economics

Download The World of Economics PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1349213152
Total Pages : 766 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (492 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The World of Economics by : John Eatwell

Download or read book The World of Economics written by John Eatwell and published by Springer. This book was released on 1991-05-13 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the central questions of economics and how do economists tackle them? This book aims to answer these questions in 100 essays, written by economists and selected from "The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics". It shows how economists deal with issues ranging from trade to taxation.

Stock Market Crashes: Predictable And Unpredictable And What To Do About Them

Download Stock Market Crashes: Predictable And Unpredictable And What To Do About Them PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9813223863
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (132 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Stock Market Crashes: Predictable And Unpredictable And What To Do About Them by : Ziemba William T

Download or read book Stock Market Crashes: Predictable And Unpredictable And What To Do About Them written by Ziemba William T and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents studies of stock market crashes big and small that occur from bubbles bursting or other reasons. By a bubble we mean that prices are rising just because they are rising and that prices exceed fundamental values. A bubble can be a large rise in prices followed by a steep fall. The focus is on determining if a bubble actually exists, on models to predict stock market declines in bubble-like markets and exit strategies from these bubble-like markets. We list historical great bubbles of various markets over hundreds of years. We present four models that have been successful in predicting large stock market declines of ten percent plus that average about minus twenty-five percent. The bond stock earnings yield difference model was based on the 1987 US crash where the S&P 500 futures fell 29% in one day. The model is based on earnings yields relative to interest rates. When interest rates become too high relative to earnings, there almost always is a decline in four to twelve months. The initial out of sample test was on the Japanese stock market from 1948-88. There all twelve danger signals produced correct decline signals. But there were eight other ten percent plus declines that occurred for other reasons. Then the model called the 1990 Japan huge -56% decline. We show various later applications of the model to US stock declines such as in 2000 and 2007 and to the Chinese stock market. We also compare the model with high price earnings decline predictions over a sixty year period in the US. We show that over twenty year periods that have high returns they all start with low price earnings ratios and end with high ratios. High price earnings models have predictive value and the BSEYD models predict even better. Other large decline prediction models are call option prices exceeding put prices, Warren Buffett's value of the stock market to the value of the economy adjusted using BSEYD ideas and the value of Sotheby's stock. Investors expect more declines than actually occur. We present research on the positive effects of FOMC meetings and small cap dominance with Democratic Presidents. Marty Zweig was a wall street legend while he was alive. We discuss his methods for stock market predictability using momentum and FED actions. These helped him become the leading analyst and we show that his ideas still give useful predictions in 2016-2017. We study small declines in the five to fifteen percent range that are either not expected or are expected but when is not clear. For these we present methods to deal with these situations. The last four January-February 2016, Brexit, Trump and French elections are analzyed using simple volatility-S&P 500 graphs. Another very important issue is can you exit bubble-like markets at favorable prices. We use a stopping rule model that gives very good exit results. This is applied successfully to Apple computer stock in 2012, the Nasdaq 100 in 2000, the Japanese stock and golf course membership prices, the US stock market in 1929 and 1987 and other markets. We also show how to incorporate predictive models into stochastic investment models. Contents: IntroductionDiscovery of the Bond–Stock Earnings Yield Differential ModelPrediction of the 2007–2009 Stock Market Crashes in the US, China and IcelandThe High Price–Earnings Stock Market Danger Approach of Campbell and Shiller versus the BSEYD ModelOther Prediction Models for the Big Crashes Averaging –25%Effect of Fed Meetings and Small-Cap DominanceUsing Zweig's Monetary and Momentum Models in the Modern EraAnalysis and Possible Prediction of Declines in the –5% to –15% RangeA Stopping Rule Model for Exiting Bubble-like Markets with ApplicationsA Simple Procedure to Incorporate Predictive Models in Stochastic Investment Models

Bubbles and Contagion in Financial Markets, Volume 1

Download Bubbles and Contagion in Financial Markets, Volume 1 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137358769
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (373 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Bubbles and Contagion in Financial Markets, Volume 1 by : E. Porras

Download or read book Bubbles and Contagion in Financial Markets, Volume 1 written by E. Porras and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-06-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding the formation of bubbles and the contagion mechanisms afflicting financial markets is a must as extreme volatility events leave no market untouched. Debt, equity, real estate, commodities... Shanghai, NY, or London: The severe fluctuations, explained to a large extent by contagion and the fear of new bubbles imploding, justify the newly awaken interest in the contagion and bubble dynamics as yet again the world brazes for a new global economic upheaval. Bubbles and Contagion in Financial Markets explores concepts, intuition, theory, and models. Fundamental valuation, share price development in the presence of asymmetric information, the speculative behavior of noise traders and chartists, herding and the feedback and learning mechanisms that surge within the markets are key aspects of these dynamics. Bubbles and contagion are a vast world and fascinating phenomena that escape a narrow exploration of financial markets. Hence this work looks beyond into macroeconomics, monetary policy, risk aggregation, psychology, incentive structures and many more subjects which are in part co-responsible for these events. Responding to the ever more pressing need to disentangle the dynamics by which financial local events are transmitted across the globe, this volume presents an exhaustive and integrative outlook to the subject of bubbles and contagion in financial markets. The key objective of this volume is to give the reader a comprehensive understanding of all aspects that can potentially create the conditions for the formation and bursting of bubbles, and the aftermath of such events: the contagion of macro-economic processes. Achieving a better understanding of the formation of bubbles and the impact of contagion will no doubt determine the stability of future economies – let these two volumes be the starting point for a rational approach to a seemingly irrational phenomena.