096: Railway Mania – Britain's Great Infrastr...

In this episode we turn to one of the most extraordinary and longest-lasting asset bubbles in modern history: the Japanese Asset Price Bubble of the late 1980s and early 1990s.This is the story of how Japan—once the miracle economy of the postwar world, the nation that seemed poi ...  Show more

In this episode, we move closer to our own time—to October 19, 1987, the day known forever as Black Monday.This is the story of the largest single-day percentage drop in stock-market history: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points, or 22.6 percent, in a single trading s ...  Show more

In his latest memo, Howard Marks discusses the implications of governmental intervention in economies. Considering examples such as rent control, fire insurance, and tariffs, he emphasizes that while free markets don’t produce perfect solutions, efforts to control them often make ...  Show more

<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black;">Modern economics was built on ideas spelled out by Adam Smith in his 18</span><sup><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; color: black;">th</span> ...

The classical economic assumption, from the days of Adam Smith, is that we all have free will and this freedom ensures the best possible outcomes for the economy, provided those decisions are based on greed and self-interest. This week’s episode opens with a student questioning M ...  Show more

Father of free market economics, Adam Smith was one of many great philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment period. His philosophies helped change the economy, putting an end to the long-standing feudal system. But outside of his well-known works, such as The Wealth of Natio ...  Show more