BOOMS and bull runs lead to “irrational exuberance”, a term coined by Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, in 1996. More than a century before him, author Charles Mackay explained the phenomenon succinctly in his aptly titled book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. He presciently wrote, “Every age has its peculiar folly...into which it plunges, spurred on by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation.”
Panics and investment pandemics, in contrast, lead to another kind of herd mentality, the lunacy that too is irrational and dynamic. However, what drives it is the pain of loss, the inevitability of volatility, and a desperate need to protect savings. Only in retrospect do investors realize the bitter truth in both cases. Economist Robert J. Shiller explained this about two decades ago when he wrote that the markets do not always reflect the “sum of the available economic information”.
What he implied was that the present prices of assets might give a distorted picture of the near future. During boom times, the high prices could suddenly fall. During crises, they could unexpectedly rebound. Since both the scenarios are unforeseen, the investors end up either taking the wrong decisions or making costly blunders. This was evident when Outlook spoke to dozens of investors on how they acted and reacted during the COVID-19 crisis, i.e. in the past six months.
Denne historien er fra August 31, 2020-utgaven av Outlook.
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Denne historien er fra August 31, 2020-utgaven av Outlook.
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Criminal Amnesia
The focus may have now shifted to the Kolkata gang rape case, but questions about the sexual violence in Manipur since May 2023 remain unanswered
To Rape A Wife
Survivors of marital rape face twin hurdles: a lack of legal framework to deal with these cases and the social stigma that comes with reporting them
A City Violated
Public outburst of anger over the rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata has left the Mamata Banerjee government puzzled, worried
The Forest of Loss
From a legal perspective, justice appears to have been served in the 2017 Gudiya rape and murder case at Kotkhai, Himachal Pradesh. But several questions persist
Here, Nobody Speaks of the Wounds
Muhammad Iqbal Shah's 14-year-old cousin was gang-raped and murdered at Handwara town, Kupwara, in 2007. The family is still trudging along the long road to justice
She Must Have Been Afraid
The 2012 Delhi gang rape is reflective of a systematic failure to cleanse the societal malaise
The Burning Woman
UP has the highest rate of crimes against women, and the district of Unnao has seen some of the State's most gruesome cases
Naked (vs.) Justice
On March 14, 2006, Latabai and her son, six, were paraded naked in a village in Solapur. Less than six months later, four members of a Dalit family were paraded naked; mother & daughter were allegedly gang-raped
Songlines of Chambal
How do the residents of Sheikhpur Gudha, Phoolan Devi's village in Uttar Pradesh, remember her: as a survivor, a rebel, a leader?
Don't You Remember My Story?
A child gang rape survivor's 12-year long ordeal in Sikar, Rajasthan shows how calls for punishment of perpetrators don't always mean empathy for the victim