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Toward Rational Exuberance
Book

Toward Rational Exuberance

The Evolution of the Modern Stock Market

B. Mark Smith
FSG, 2001

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Since it now appears that the laws of economics do indeed still apply to the U.S. stock market, it seems a good time to brush up on the history of Wall Street. Such a look back is especially important to the millions of investment bankers, brokers and individual investors who cut their teeth in the "irrational exuberance" of the ’90s and are now catching their first real glimpse of the bear. B. Mark Smith’s comprehensive history of the U.S. equity market demonstrates, if nothing else, that this ain’t the first time a bubble’s burst and it sure won’t be the last. The beauty of Smith’s book derives from his ability to link the development of the market with the history of the times. He begins with the founding of the first exchange in the late 1700s and traces the market’s increasingly powerful role through the last century, when it helped fuel modern technological and economic growth. The book is especially intriguing when it discusses the relatively unknown early years of the market, before its big crash in 1929. getAbstract recommends this fascinating history to executives, financiers and academics, as well as to a broad audience of history buffs, even those with little knowledge about stocks.

Take-Aways

  • Wall Street’s first marketplace in the early 1600s traded commodities and slaves.
  • In 1792, 24 merchants signed the Buttonwood Agreement, the first formal agreement to sell public stocks.
  • Soon after the first non-banking business issued stocks in 1815, many other industries funded factories with stocks.

About the Author

B. Mark Smith  was a professional stock trader for nearly two decades, first with CS/First Boston Corporation, where he became director, then as vice president of Goldman, Sachs & Company. He has since retired from the stock market.

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