i hope that this fits into this forum.

but i think almost all asset classes and especially real estate is out of control.

this image from 1875 could be from 2007

http://immobilienblasen.blogspot.com/2007/...oor-way-to.html

Nice one. Gord I hope it's true, 'cos it really doesn't seem that way, almost like the captions got transposed. I shall treasure it in my heart, and recall it next time I'm plodding home with my kit and get splashed by one of my MEWing punters, zooming past in their Banzai Hitlera 4x4 TDi on their way to a gastropub, because cooking would mess up the bespoke kitchen I've just been Rsing about in. (I'm the fellow standing in the left foreground of the RH pic )

by the way " das boot" is one of my favorites films.

i´m really glad that the housing bubble hasn´t arrived in germany. knock on wood.........

I hope you are showing all your friends what the idiots out on the islands are doing! Be warned, they will try to start it over there when the gas goes out of this one.
If they start showing property porn on the TV, maybe one of you should volunteer to appear, and do a 'von Stauffenberg' on the presenters?

The avatar just sums up how it feels for me and people I know....
An old man, just doing his job, trapped in a sinking tin can, while the world outside goes totally insane

I liked the drawing from the last century - but given that a lot of jobs are being lost in the UK (part. in engineering/manufacturing) and that there is pressure from business to keep pay rises below RPI - coupled with the fact that everyone has the idea that property investment will make them really rich - from all the property porn on tv -

it is no wonder that we live in a society where people know the cost of everything but the value of nothing

puts and calls ? (center left )

I think that. The finacial sophistacation of 1875 means that this picture cannot be from that early in the evolution of market mechimims not least because the futures market at the CBOT was not far advanced then begining only 25years previous. the first bucketshop did not appear until 1876

Hello

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong area.

Please can anyone recommend a good trading game for someone who is numeric but not necessarily clear on all aspects of financial market terminology? I am looking for something that will give me a flavour of trading generally and more from the perspective of a short-term trader than someone who makes long term economic decisions.

I would quite like to get a feel for the mechanics of trading. I have been 'trading' on sports betting exchanges and would like to see whether my skills transfer over to trading in financial markets.

Cheers

Barney

Glad you mentioned that, just seen the pic now. Had to question the term "credit system" in one of the bubbles, and thought the term 'credit' came later than 1875? Would be interesting to be able to validate the authenticity of this, as this looks like modern day propoganda. From whom, I don't know.

If you're into reading the Classic novels, try 'The Mayor of Castorbridge' by Thomas Hardy. The hero, Henchard, makes a fortune as an agricultural merchant but loses it all by wrongly buying grain futures - he ends up buying all the local farmers' corn harvests at more than the going rate and making a huge loss.

Future trading was certainly around in the mid 1800s.

Financial markets were plenty sophisticated in 1875! Speculative trading mechanisms and credit structures began evolving from the late 1700s onwards and were highly developed by the mid 19th century. As redwing says above there are whole genres of 19thc novels devoted to social analysis of the systems created by speculation in 19thc. society (see not just Hardy but Trollope as well). Speculative mechanisms, credit structures, futures trading etc were highly connected to the financial development of the British Empire and the financial system of the US between 1830-1900. There were repeated speculative booms and busts during this period, particularly in America.

If anything, that picture looks behind the times to me. It's a classic example of a fairly conventional adaption of Puritan homily to the new financial pressures that you get in the US from the early/mid 1800s onwards. It's also a photographic facsimile from the Library of Congress database, so very far from a piece of fakery (why on earth would some rare books librarians be interested in comprehensively faking an example of an illustration on their website that is there primarily as a historical curio for tourists and academics visiting their website?? See http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/paFinance.html from where this illustration is taken for some more lovely credit-homily illustrations. This one is great: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/i?pp/P...(cph+3a04576)))

Did anyone notice in the left hand corner of the bubble picture what appears to be the stereotypical caricature of the "Jewish villain" blowing the bubbles. Printed round about the time Jews were being hounded and portrayed in this "devilish" manner - I thought at first it was a picture of Satan then remembered the course I did in Judaism. There was a famous court case at the time in France when someone was tried on trumped up charges literally because he was Jewish.

Well it would be interesting to find when it came into usage, but remember Shylock...?

What a load of cacky pap; click HERE to discover the easiest way to grow rich. GUARANTEED.

Just noticed one of the bubbles is called 'public office' LOL!

Don't worry Wario. I reckon Black Monday 1987 is gonna look like a sunny day compared to black Tuesday March 2008. Look at the rally in the USA yesterday and today and look at the the short selling on all asset shares yet to be realised.... Ha ha ha ha ha ha Anyone holding ANY shares is going have a black Tuesday next week.