It is not easy to prove direction of causality between a narrative and the economy. For example, did the stories of successful speculators and wild enthusiasm for stocks that characterized the 1920s cause increased stock prices and increased corporate earnings? Or did those increased earnings cause the enthusiasm? Was the similar enthusiasm for Bitcoin after 2009 in any way responsible for the increase in Bitcoin’s price? Or was Bitcoin’s increased value just a logical reaction to news stories and new progress in the mathematical theory of cryptography?
