Stock-market

The book provides fascinating history of the early market years, especially 1908 (following the Panic of 1907) and 1927-28 (The Roaring Twenties). Savvy investors like Bernard Baruch and Benjamin Graham as well as disreputable con artists are profiled. Wall Street investment pools and trusts, financial journals long gone ("The Magazine of Wall Street"), and brokerage houses long since merged are profiled and looked at periodically in different time periods. The changing histories and interplay of Ford, GM, and IBM are looked at over the decades of American economic performance.

Some interesting factoids: Did you know that adjusted for inflation, a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1928 sold for $6 million (prices got as high as 1/3rd that amount in 1999-2000)? That Radio Corporation of America went from $101 in 1929 to $2 1/2 in 1932? That General Motors, the dot.com of it's day, went up 150-fold from 1918-1928? That Tim Mara, original co-owner of the New York Giants football team (his brother, Wellington, still runs the team today), was on the hook for $50,000 for loans to Al Smith's 1928 presidential campaign and told the Crash-troubled bank they could "go to hell" before he'd pay it (all the co-signers had been told that a Smith victory was assured and that they'd never have to make good on the note)? That the 1958 IPO of Desilu Studios (Lucy and Desi Arnaz, "I Love Lucy," "The Untouchables," etc) was one of the most successful ever -- though Desi's hiring of Walter Winchell as the announcer on "The Untouchables" was a factor in breaking up their marriage (Winchell had once alluded to Ball's communist background and caused her lots of problems)? These and numerous other interesting financial, economic, business, cultural, and political tidbits are dispersed throughout the book and make it a very easy and fast read.

This book is not so much a financial review of select years in American history as it is a cultural, corporate, personality, and political review of the times. Fridson has a wealth of information on the major economic and financial factors of the day, but the strength of the book is his ability to intersperse lots of interesting offbeat facts, cultural references, and names from bygone eras and thus hold the reader's attention.

If you like financial markets, you'll love this book. If you like financial market history, you'll love it even more. And if you're not interested in financial markets, but just want to take a stroll down alot of Memory Lanes, you're bound to pick up some interesting knowledge from various slices of American history that will benefit you the next time you are playing Trivial Pursuit.

DeVitto writes: "Investors are now looking back at the reality of the last decade rather than forward to the risks that lie ahead." He argues quite convincingly that "the deflationary risks in today's global economy are more pronounced than at any time since the 1930's."

DeVitto reveals that our passion for stocks, combined with an ever-increasing debt burden at both the individual and corporate level, have left our nation with little wiggle room should we experience a recession of any lasting duration. He argues that as the "wealth effect" begins to evaporate,the confidence or psychology of most investors will erode,and, as consumers, will quickly discover that both their capacity and desire to buy goods and services have diminished markedly.Given that consumers represent 2/3 of the economy, it doesn't take a nuclear scientist to figure out what can happen to corporate earnings, which, ultimately, are a stock's only lifeboat.

DeVitto writes in plain english and incorprates his graphs in a very user-friendly way, making the book accessible to all readers. Irrational Markets is a very smooth read, and at under 200 pages can be incorporated into even the busiest of schedules.

Despite the fact the NASDAQ is currently 50% off its highs reached in March of 2000, this book is no less timely. In fact, should some of the concerns raised by DeVitto become a reality, most Americans will be elated to return to their February 2001 account values.

DeVitto's book is A MUST READ for any equity investor, especially bullish investors like myself who have embraced technology stocks with the same passion a 16 year-old boy embraces his prom date. I'm confident readers will find this book well worth their time and the investment (the price of the book and a bottle of TUMS)as it will serve as a much needed yield sign through the frenetic intersection of Equity Street and Net Worth Avenue, Pamplona, USA.