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Financial History

Holding Up a Mirror to the First Global Stock Bubble

Yale SOM’s William Goetzmann, an expert in art and finance history, showed us satirical prints documenting the first global stock bubble, three centuries ago.

An 18th-century print of a crowded street
  • Crashes and COVID-19 in Historical Context

    The stock markets are reeling as fear and uncertainty about the global pandemic grow. We asked Yale SOM’s William Goetzmann, whose research includes financial history, to put the volatility into historical perspective.

    John Poole, president of the Federal American Bank, reassuring a crowd of anxious depositors in February 1931. Photo: Popperfoto via Getty Images.
  • What We Talk about When We Talk about Stock Market Crashes

    Yale SOM’s Robert Shiller examines how the stock market rise of the 1920s, the crash of 1929, and the Great Depression that followed came to be seen as a tale of recklessness and divine punishment.

    Messengers from brokerage houses crowd around a newspaper after the stock market crash on October 24, 1929. Photo: by Eddie Jackson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images.
  • Is Cryptocurrency Really a New Idea? 

    Bitcoin meshes digital technology with an approach to money that predates the development of cash and coin, according to Yale SOM’s William Goetzmann.

    A drawing of a wall carving showing ancient people exchanging Bitcoin
  • Can a Place Built on Global Banking Survive Britain’s Retreat from Europe?

    Professor William Goetzmann discusses the uncertainty facing the financial hub at Canary Wharf as Britain moves steadily toward its divorce from the European Union.

    An aerial photo of Canary Wharf, London