Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Financial Bubbles Happened In The Past! -1



What is the common point between the Asian crisis of 1997, the Internet crisis of 2001, the subprime crisis in 2008, the sovereign debt crisis of 2010 and what will be the next financial and economic crisis? They all originate from the bursting of a speculative bubble. This phenomenon of artificial inflation of prices though not new, for more than three centuries actually, economic agents know that trees do not grow to the sky. And yet they are still surprised when a bubble bursts. It all began in the late sixteenth century, when Dutch traders introduced in the country of tulips from Turkey. New, rare and unlikely mix of colors, a combination which gave very quickly tulip flowers to have high value relative to many other flowers that were the kingdom. Tulip and gradually became a luxury item particularly popular with the wealthy but also by the Dutch bourgeoisie. Finally freed from Spanish rule, the latter had indeed reaped significant benefits from trade with Asia, not hesitating to build large houses surrounded by flower gardens particularly with tulips. For almost forty years, the price of tulip flowers then continued to grow at a moderate pace at first, then more sustained from the 1630s rhythm, and in 1635 it took an average of 2,500 florins to buy a tulip flowers,to a greater cost of 25 750 euro( as the value of 2002 ,if we are to believe the calculations of the International Institute of Social History). The price of tulip flowers reached its peak in 1636, the same year; parliament actually discussed a project on the transformation of the nature of the contracts that would become the purchasing options and not obligations which is a windfall for speculators. Thus says at the beginning of year 1637, a tulip flowers could be traded on the futures market against the equivalent of three paintings by Rembrandt, or ten times the annual salary of a skilled craftsman, or against a field of five acres ... data often from pamphlets of the time which it is impossible to verify the accuracy.

One thing is for sure though; the price of tulip flowers was abnormally high. Especially when we know that the color intensity of the flower was actually linked to a mosaic virus of the flower. Finally, in February 1637 that the euphoria ended and the prices of futures fall sharply, marking the end of speculation, understand the "trade wind." The tulip mania and was one of the first bubbles in economic history. It also marked the beginning of a long list of other bubbles - Crash of 1720 following speculation on the South Sea Company, crash of Vienna in 1873 due to soaring property prices in Paris Berlin and Vienna stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 and, more recently, the subprime crisis - causes and consequences substantially similar. A mass hysteria and the rapid enrichment of people’s misunderstanding one another, movements of brutal impoverishment and bankruptcy.

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