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The Collapse of Barings Bank: How One Rogue Trader Destroyed the World's Oldest Merchant Bank (1995)
In 1995, Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old derivatives trader in Singapore, single-handedly destroyed Barings Bank; a 233-year-old institution that had financed the Louisiana Purchase and served as banker to the Queen.
Market Histories
The Enron Scandal: How America's Most Innovative Company Became Its Biggest Fraud
Enron's collapse in December 2001 destroyed $74 billion in shareholder value and 20,000 jobs. Through mark-to-market accounting tricks and off-balance-sheet partnerships, executives concealed billions in debt while Wall Street cheered.
Market Histories
The Flash Crash: When Algorithms Broke the Market in 36 Minutes (2010)
On May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 1,000 points in minutes before recovering almost as quickly.
Market Histories
The Rise and Fall of the Medici Bank: How Renaissance Florence Invented Modern Finance (1397-1494)
The Medici Bank, founded in 1397, pioneered double-entry bookkeeping, bills of exchange, and the holding company structure, transforming Florence into the financial capital of Europe.
Market Histories Research
The Yom Kippur War and the Oil Shock: How a Middle East Conflict Reshaped Global Finance (1973)
When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in October 1973, Arab oil producers imposed an embargo that quadrupled crude prices overnight.
Market Histories Research
Crises & Crashes→
The Enron Scandal: How America's Most Innovative Company Became Its Biggest Fraud
The Flash Crash: When Algorithms Broke the Market in 36 Minutes (2010)
The Yom Kippur War and the Oil Shock: How a Middle East Conflict Reshaped Global Finance (1973)
The Long-Term Capital Management Collapse
Bubbles & Manias→
The Japanese Asset Bubble: When Tokyo Was Worth More Than California (1985-1990)
How the Plaza Accord, ultra-low interest rates, and a culture of financial invincibility inflated Japan's stock and real estate markets to absurd heights before a crash that produced the longest…
Market Histories Research
The Dot-Com Bubble: Irrational Exuberance and the Internet Gold Rush (1995-2000)
How the promise of the internet fueled a speculative mania that drove the NASDAQ to 5,048 before a crash that wiped out $5 trillion in market value and reshaped the…
Market Histories Research
The South Sea Bubble: When Britain Gambled on a Trading Company
The rise and collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720 ruined thousands of British investors, famously including Isaac Newton, and exposed the dangers of government-backed financial schemes.
Market Histories Research
The Railway Mania: Britain's Victorian Tech Bubble (1840s)
How a revolutionary new technology sparked a speculative frenzy in 1840s Britain, with eerie parallels to the dot-com bubble 150 years later.
Market Histories Research
Tulip Mania: The World's First Speculative Bubble (1637)
How a rare flower bulb became the center of history's most famous speculative frenzy in the Dutch Golden Age, with single bulbs trading for the price of canal houses.
Market Histories Research
Policy & Regulation→
The Plaza Accord: When Five Nations Moved the Dollar (1985)
How five finance ministers secretly agreed at the Plaza Hotel to depreciate the US dollar, triggering a 50% decline against the yen and setting in motion the chain of events…
Market Histories Research
The Glass-Steagall Act (1933): The Wall Between Banking and Speculation
How the Banking Act of 1933 erected a firewall between commercial and investment banking, reshaping American finance for over six decades before its repeal.
Market Histories
Market Innovation→
The Rise and Fall of the Medici Bank: How Renaissance Florence Invented Modern Finance (1397-1494)
The Medici Bank, founded in 1397, pioneered double-entry bookkeeping, bills of exchange, and the holding company structure, transforming Florence into the financial capital of Europe.
Market Histories Research
The Birth of Index Funds (1976): Bogle's Revolution in Investing
How John Bogle's radical idea -- a mutual fund that simply tracked the market -- overcame Wall Street ridicule to become the dominant force in modern investing.
Market Histories