The Market Crash of 1873 and the Depression That Wasn’t

Big money always attracts big trouble, but you don't need crime to get booms and crashes. You just need human nature and the branch of finance that studies it, called behavioral finance. From time to time, investors will overestimate future profits and bid up popular stocks and bonds beyond their fair value, and later overestimate future losses and crash the price.

By Laurence B. Siegel