Word for the wise ©
Time again to share with you some of that impressive Rainy Day vocabulary. It's the letter "B" today and our Word for the wise © comes at a time when a barrel of this stuff costs over $60, shares in this search engine are topping $300 and a five-bedroom house in Dublin will set you back the best part of €5 million.
bubble Speculation was rife in the early part of the 18th century with companies luring the gullible by purporting to deal in such valuable commodities as hair, wheels of perpetual motion and, best of all, "a design which will hereafter be promulgated." In the course of eight months during 1720, the South Sea "Bubble", as it came to be known, expanded as stock in the South Sea Company soared from £136 to £1,000. Then, the bubble burst and thousands of investors were ruined. A poet of the day commented:We madly at our ain expenses
Stock-jobb'd away our cash and senses.When Dr Johnson came to write his great dictionary, he didn't hide his contempt for the stock-jobber: "A low wretch who gets money by buying and selling shares in the funds." Instead of trenchancy, however, Swift brought satire to the issue and helped coin the "bubble" term:
The nation then too late will find
Directors' promises but wind
South-Sea at best a mighty bubble.The last word goes to Colly Cibber, the noted Grub Street writer and forerunner of today's journalistic hack. He penned this exchange in 1721.
And all this out of Change-Alley?
Every Shilling Sir; all out of Stocks, Tuts, Bulls, Rams, Bears and Bubbles.We'll be moving onto the letter "C" next week. Candidate words include "cattle" and "constable".
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Comments
What about the 5 bedroom house that has just gone for €36 million. Bubble or what.
Posted by: Edmund Burke | June 30, 2005 1:39 PM