William Goetzmann: From Babylon to Bubbles — A 5,000-Year History of Finance (Investing in America Series) #632

The Meb Faber Show - Better Investing

The Idea Farm

Management, Investing, Business

4.8 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s guest is Will Goetzmann, Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management. He is an expert on financial markets and securities, investment strategies, investor behavior and financial history. In today’s episode, Professor Goetzmann walks through 5,000 years of financial history, showing how finance shaped trade, cities, corporations, and investing. He covers the first compound interest calculation, the world’s oldest corporations and bonds, and historic bubbles from tulips to NFTs. To close, he explains why markets have repeatedly adapted through war, crisis, and uncertainty. (0:00) Starts (1:50) William Goetzmann on origins of money (7:06) The history of corporations (14:43) Yale's historical bond and early financial innovation (17:33) Parallels between historical and modern financial bubbles (25:52) SpaceX IPO and market valuations (27:26) Herd mentality and bubbles (32:47) Global investing, inflation, and currencies (41:13) Finance-related art (46:31) Most memorable investment ----- Sponsor: ⁠Ivy Invest ⁠- To learn more about Ivy Invest's SEC-registered endowment-style fund, view the prospectus, and learn how to invest, visit ⁠ivyinvest.co/fund ----- Follow Meb on X, LinkedIn and YouTube For detailed show notes, click here To learn more about our funds and follow us, subscribe to our mailing list or visit us at cambriainvestments.com ----- Follow The Idea Farm: X | LinkedIn | Instagram | TikTok ----- Interested in sponsoring the show? Email us at Feedback@TheMebFaberShow.com ----- Past guests include Ed Thorp, Richard Thaler, Jeremy Grantham, Joel Greenblatt, Campbell Harvey, Ivy Zelman, Kathryn Kaminski, Jason Calacanis, Whitney Baker, Aswath Damodaran, Howard Marks, Tom Barton, and many more. ----- Meb's invested in some awesome startups that have passed along discounts to our listeners. Check them out here! ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to a special series of the MEP Faber Show on the past, present, future of America.
0:12.3	I'm sitting down with some of the most notable historians, thinkers, investors in the U.S. financial history, all tied to my new coffee table book, investing in America, the rise of a
0:22.3	250-year bull market out July 4th.
0:26.9	Metbae is the co-founder and chief investment officer at Cambrian investment management.
0:29.9	Due to industry regulations, he will not discuss any of Cambrey's funds on this podcast.
0:34.9	Portfolios don't usually get messy overnight. It happens slowly.
0:38.4	Before long, you're managing a ton of holdings and a long tax bill that keeps everything stuck in place.
0:44.5	A Section 351 exchange may allow investors to consolidate their qualifying holdings into a single
0:49.9	ETF, all without triggering capital gains at the time of exchange if specific rules and tests
0:55.2	are met. Our friends at Alpha Architect have worked directly on multiple 351 exchange launches and
1:00.5	helped advisors navigate through these exact challenges. That experience is now available in the Alpha
1:05.6	Architect 351 Education Center, a dedicated hub featuring videos, walkthroughs, and resources designed to help investors stay informed on the latest 351 exchange insights.
1:16.3	To learn more about 351 exchanges and their various portfolio applications, visit funds.orgafarchitect.com
1:23.2	or slash 351 education center or click on the link in the show notes.
1:27.4	Investments in securities entail risks, including possible loss of principle, and are not
1:31.4	suitable for all investors.
1:33.6	A guest participants are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of
1:36.3	Cambria Investment Management or its affiliates.
1:38.1	For more information, visit camriainvestments.com.
1:42.1	Welcome back, everybody. Today is a very special episode. My guest today is Will Getsman,
1:48.2	Professor of Finance, legendary professor at the Yale School of Management. He is an expert
1:53.1	on financial markets, securities, investment strategies, investor behavior, financial history,
	...

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