Each age has its peculiar folly, some scheme, project or phantasy into which it is plunged, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation…. Money has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper…. Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly and one by one. —Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds,
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