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On This Day In The History Of Ponzi Schemes
As America embarks on its latest pre-IPO tech bubble, driven by a fundamentally broken Ponzi system which relies on the marginally disappearing greater fool, it is time to look back in time to this day in 1637, when the granddaddy of all irrationally exuberant bubbles died: the Dutch Tulip Mania.
Source: Wikipedia
What was tulip mania, you ask?
Tulip mania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. At the peak of tulip mania, in February 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble.
And for fun here are a few recent 'exciting' opportunities...
UniCredit +89% in the last 3 weeks
FriendFinder +120% in the last week
And everyone's favorite Zynga +81% in 3 weeks.
Charts: Bloomberg
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Betcha RoboPrattle bought UCG & ZNGA the 9th, and FFN on the 27th.
Aside from being 300 years off that is one hell of a fall out of bed drop. At least the graphic has the year right.
Erratum:
" it is time to look back in time to this day in 1937,"
You mean 1637, I hope.
No doubt Bill Gross in his interview with Keene this AM referred to his company as pimPco
here is the clip unfortunately it does not have a timeline but the comment is just beyond the halfway point prefaced by this question from Prewitt
What happens if the two Percenters are wrong?
While that's possible Ken, the fed has always said that they were conditional and lets not forget that including pimPco..."
http://media.bloomberg.com/bb/avfile/News/Surveillance/v8AuLTGbvzRk.mp3
SPX 1343: this is the same exact level we fell from on Feb 19th, 2011.
Were is the RoboRoach at? Changing a flat tire on his Schwinn in LuluLemon yoga leotard while on paper route? This fucker knows ALL the bubbles...
the telling thing about this rally is that all the good solid co's are on FIRE today like TZOO, LNKD, Homies, Restaurants, Brunswick... everyone gona have a steak dinner after they write that 50k check for a new boat, LOL
Favorite pun of all time:
What's better than roses on your piano......
(Bonus ZH points for first posted correct answer)
tulipsonyourorgan.
AndwithUS citizenism around, quite a lot to be done.
Facebook-- what an ironic concept for the "I am special generation", that will soon join the ranks of OWS because one can't turn virtual reality into real life economic opportunities.
They are probably already much in the real life.
Quite funnily enough, with US citizenism around and the prospects born by that set of beliefs, social networks like the Internet FB is the place to be.
US citizens have the passion of group, it is all about submission to the group.
People who join FB are people who can submit.
Fuck FB, I dont work for Zuckerkid.
I find it amazing that a little man who is not yet in prime can change money like that. Most of folks his age don't quite look that healthy.
The sellers of those tulipbulbs were later thrown into the Keizersgracht. ( a famous Dutch canal...) History will repaet itself...
and over and over and over and over...........................
and over and over...........
Bubbles...Crowd behavior, Mass Psychology, Hysteria...I love it...
Its got everything...Fortunes, Broken dreams, Insanity...All the warm fuzzies!
So is it too late to get in on this tulip bubble opportunity thing?
I figured that out!
I don't do any useful work, i spend my entire daily and nightly life on facebook and play facebook games. I buy FB and ZNGA, I will get rich because I "produce" statistics which are the only useful metrics in the internet age. GO facebook and zynga!
Why is a site specializing in Adultery up 120% in a week???
I think Dotcom 2.0 peak is right around the corner. This really feels like 1999 all over again. Stocks up 100% in a couple hours, nobody can lose.
UnFUCKINGbelievable
13 years is a long enough time to produce a new generation of suckers
nihil sub sole novum
Yeh but Tyler....they didn't have a plunge protection team during the Tulip mania!
Those guys just keep hitting the "BUY" button all day long. Whenever the 1 oz Gold eagle coin is flipped, if it lands on heads they buy bonds, if tails they buy bank stocks....
.....and the Duch and all their colonies came under the control of the British crown and The City. Speaking of DEAD empires. You know when the Empire is DEAD when it's a really BIG deal if you get the endorsement to be the next Emperor from a guy who inherited all his money from his father and then went bankrupt TWICE because he couldn't get enough fools to throw their money away at his caisnos. Oh well, Newt has his own crypto-facist casino owner, who hasn't gove bankrupt. (yet) Where's Bobby D and Sharon Stone when you need them?
remember, two lips are better than one.
I predict another flower bubble to burst...poppies when we leave Afghanistan next year. Only it will be a burst in the record yields of the past decade that will send heroin prices through the roof.
Followed by a regional war in our Rio Grande and inner cities when gangs fight for the ones to buy drugs among the dregs of a society that has fled.
That's it, I am going into the weekend with a SMALL short position just to honour this day. Thanks for the post.
ponzi's live on, from century to century
Pretty, aren't they?
http://cache.graphicslib.viator.com/graphicslib/media/f9/black-and-yello...
A speculative bubble from the past, no doubt fueled by elites with more money than sense or concern for the greater good.
Sounds familiar.
Yes, IIRC the black ones were prized...
Bernanke, Geithner and the gang could have kept that Tulip Bubble inflated for years. And don't think they wouldn't have tried if they had been around then.
According to the folk who believe in reincarnation Bernanke, Geithner and the gang probably were around then and if so they were probably involved in the Tulip bubble.
Unicredit, FriendFinder and Zynga ... incredible.
Speaking of Ponzi schemes and plants here is a fine crop of weeds (from left to right): bindweed, dandelion, kudzu, crabgrass, poison ivy, mallow, ragweed, and quakgrass:
http://www.substancenews.net/assets/images2/1577080483.jpg
Well..it now seems clear...Blackhawk ben will save (bailout) the banks regardless of the amount of fiat required to float them.
Ben will use your money, my money, and print until the sheep come home.....and the banksters will have their equity prices...higher.
Cotton Candy! Git yur Cotton Candy here!
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/17859/1d/deliveryag1.download.akamai.com...
Our sugar (money), their air (hot).
Ok, the tulip thing is nice but no one is talking about the opening of the Manhattan gold mine this afternoon. I heard they have a special there. Gold is flowing and this increase in supply is trashing its price.
In the last weeks my only tech stock has rallied silly. Now I know why, Greenspan said the nineties were coming back...
And on BBC news today...
Record prices are being paid for single bulbs
.......welcome to the latest bubble...
snowdrops.......
One collector paid £360 on eBay last month for a single Galanthus "Green Tear" bulb. It's a new record price for the most expensive snowdrop bulb ever sold, say experts.
What about the price of GLD? Is it also a bubble?
Those were the days. The financial web was not as big and complicated as today's and such a bubble could be sustained only for a few months. Note that the housing bubble in US and UK lasted for 15+ years.