#192 The History of Financial Bubbles w/ William Quinn
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2021
⏱️ 61 minutes
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Summary
Market bubbles can make and break fortunes, and which side of things you end up on has everything to do with what you're holding when the bubble busts. But what separates a bubble from sensible investing? It's always hard to tell in the moment, but history has some valuable lessons. In this episode, Ben talks with Dr. William Quinn, whose new book Boom and Bust lays out a brilliant formula for understanding the causes of financial bubbles and examines some of the biggest examples in history. The conversation covers the Great Depression, why some bubbles have limited effect and others bring down economies, and why both Ben and William have some concerns about Bitcoin.
William Quinn is a Lecturer in Finance at Queen's University Belfast Management School. His new book Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which he coauthored with John D. Turner, was a Financial Times Book of the Year in 2020. You can follow William Quinn on twitter at @wquinn05
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is in the loop, the Legion of Osiris Podcasts. |
| 0:03.9 | Osiris is creating a community that connects people like you |
| 0:06.8 | with live experiences and podcasts about artists and topics you love. |
| 0:11.6 | Get in the loop at Osirispod.com. |
| 0:18.2 | I'm Ben Sawyer, and this is The Road to Now. |
| 0:22.2 | Today's conversation is with William Quinn. |
| 0:25.0 | He co-authored a new book with his colleague John D. Turner. |
| 0:28.5 | It's called Boom and Bust. |
| 0:30.1 | It's a history of financial bubbles. |
| 0:32.1 | If you're invested or thinking about investing in Bitcoin or you're using Robin Hood, |
| 0:37.4 | I would say this is something |
| 0:38.5 | worth listening to because it might have some thoughtful moments in it. Whatever the case, |
| 0:43.5 | though, just remember, we are not certified financial advisors, but we are historians and sometimes |
| 0:49.0 | stories look familiar to us. I just wanted to say before we get started with it, though, |
| 0:53.4 | that we have |
| 0:54.3 | some great news. For those of you guys who know about Bob's daughter, Halley, she's been fighting |
| 1:00.3 | pediatric cancer for years, but they had treatment, and they went back last week. Everything's clear. |
| 1:06.6 | So, so far, so good. Thanks to everyone who has given us, you know, asked about her, about sent us emails. |
| 1:14.4 | It's, it's always a stressful moment. And I am grateful to say that the good people at St. Jude, |
| 1:20.9 | they keep doing it. Halle keeps fighting. And it really is, it really is an amazing story. |
| 1:26.5 | And so thank you to everyone who reached out about Hallie and who has continued to show support by supporting St. Jude, press on fund. |
| 1:33.8 | We are grateful for all of that. |
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