“A new sensation was afforded Wall Street in the announcement that two ladies had taken rooms on the street, and were about to do a first-class brokers’ business, dealing in stocks and gold. The ladies rejoiced in the name of Victoria C. Woodhull, and Tennessee C. Claflm.”
“From the mid-19th Century until the Great Depression, banks, insurance companies and other large institutional investors supplied railways with external capital that supported their rise to near hegemony over transport in the U.S. This regime ended in the 1930’s, when widespread rail bankruptcies threatened broader credit markets.”
“How much of the short run volatility of asset prices is due to the arrival of news? How much can be accounted for by other factors like behavioral biases or frictions in the market micro-structure?… During the 18th century a number of British stocks were traded on the Amsterdam exchange and all relevant information from England reached Amsterdam through mail boats… I then measure the effect of information on the volatility of the British stocks traded in Amsterdam.”
“This research empirically verifies adverse selection took place in Holland’s market for life annuities which made life annuities relatively costly for the government. As life annuities were the government’s preferred debt instrument and demand for them was slack the market was demand-driven. As long as no structural reform in the pricing mechanism was implemented the government would remain at the mercy of the market. Why said reform did not take place remains unclear.”
