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Charles Mackay: The extraordinary delusions and madness of the crowds [REVIEW]
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Charles Mackay: The extraordinary delusions and madness of the crowds [REVIEW]

created Michał SielskiAugust 5 2020

When we read everywhere about a book published in 1841 that it is universal, timeless and should even be the Bible for today's investors in stock market, CFDs or Forex most often we react the same: it is exaggeration and coloring. After reading it, however, you can definitely change your mind.

Unusual delusions and madness of the crowdsor investing 200 years ago ...

Before reading the book Unusual delusions and madness of the crowds Charles Mackay, I knew what to expect, because I had read some of its announcements before. Most investors, and even those who do not invest but are interested in the market or at least curiosities from around the world, have also heard of, for example, tulip fever in the Netherlands or speculation on stocks in England and France that took place in previous centuries.


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Hearing something about it, maybe even knowing and knowing a few facts, is quite different, however, than getting acquainted with an extremely careful analysis of these events. And it must be admitted that the crazy speculation fever has been described so precisely that at some points it may be tempting to provoke a similar one today. Because - contrary to appearances - the greed mechanism works the same all the time, regardless of whether we count the profits on parchment, writing down with a quill pen or on the most modern computer equipped with an accounting program with data in the cloud.

A flood of facts and comments

Unusual delusions and madness of the crowdsWhat will primarily strike the attentive reader of Charles Mackay's book is the enormous amount of work done by the author of this seemingly thin, slightly over 140 pages long work. The book is simply saturated with facts, dates and numbers, but at the same time it is easy to read and there is no problem with “swallowing” the next pages. Really well-written stories are captivating from the very beginning, and although we know their ending from the story, we follow the next events with fascination. There is no shortage of precisely described national threads, but also the characteristics of individual heroes and, of course, anti-heroes of the events presented.

The book is also written in an accessible language, for which Wojciech Madej and Joanna Piotrowska, who undertook the translation of the book, are undoubtedly due bows. If I did not know that it was written almost 200 years ago, I would not have noticed it, which cannot be said about many other books by English authors, sold in Poland for years, which sometimes have to be read in slow motion to understand some phrases or even whole sentences.

An undoubted advantage is also the author's comments, who enrich each event with a historical and often a geographical trait, as if he expected the book to be current for centuries. Thanks to this, we understand the cause-effect context of individual events much better.

Those at the top earn the most

However, the conclusion that can be drawn after reading the content is not surprising. Virtually every speculative bubble earned the most those who happened to be in power. What's more, they often had a direct influence on pumping it, even when it was known that it was a speculation based primarily on the title frenzy of crowds, and not the increase in the real value of shares or rare tulip bulbs.

In fairness, however, it has to be said that they also lost the most afterwards, but the author also describes the cases of the rich who took huge fortunes abroad, hidden under a cart of hay and horse dung, and never reached them by the hand of justice. I must admit that this also seems timeless, only the methods of diverting wealth to tax havens and paradise islands where you can live your last days in peace and abundance have changed ...


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About the Author
Michał Sielski
Professional journalist for over 20 years. He worked, among others, in Gazeta Wyborcza, recently associated with the largest regional portal - Trojmiasto.pl. He has been present on the financial market for 18 years, he started on the Warsaw Stock Exchange when the shares of PKN Orlen and TP SA were just being introduced to the market. Recently, his investment focus has been exclusively on the Forex market. Privately, he is a parachutist, a lover of Polish mountains and a Polish karate champion.