COMMENT: I’ve found a very good point in one of your writings “there are panics that are local such as 1792, 1837, 1869, 1893, 1907 just to name a few and then there are those that are contagions that are global such as 1857, 1873, 1929, 1987 and 2007. Sometimes the contagion began in Europe as in 1873 and other times in the United States as in 1987 and 2007”. … .Are there any other panics in other parts of the world that were contagious before Great Depression?
ANSWER: Yes. Even the South Sea Bubble and Mississippi Bubbles were contagions within Europe aside from the theme of investing offshore in emerging markets. Even the Tulip Bubble, the first contagion post-Dark Age, was a European-wide contagion as tulips even traded in London. There were ancient contagions and panics. Stocks traded in Rome, insurance predated even that, and commodity markets thrived in a boom bust cycle as far back as Babylon. Why do you think there were attempts at wage and price controls? To defeat the business cycle.
