Misplaced Trust: How Positions of Influence Can be Abused in Managed Bubbles

Abstract

This paper analyzes three of the most socially impactful and financially catastrophic managed bubbles in financial history, in order to understand their formation and guide future preventative legislation and market analysis. Through an in-depth analysis and historical comparison of the South Sea bubble, the Railway Mania of 1845, and the Dot Com bubble of the 1990s, historical parallels are established despite differing levels of existing market complexity. Furthermore, by understanding the key perpetrators of the three historical schemes and their contribution to the growth, manipulation, and collapse of the three bubbles, a generalized understanding of positions prone to financial manipulation can be better understood. The main focus of this paper is placed on the manipulative practices of government and media officials, and comparisons between their actions and methods reveal similar characteristics in their relative schemes, which can act as indicators of fraudulent market manipulation in future bubbling markets. The main characteristics analyzed through the three schemes is the manipulation of authority, credibility, and public perception.