The Banality and Necessity of Bubbles | #5 | Venture Capital in the 21st Century
Channel: New Economic Thinking
Date: 10/02/2021

Financial speculation and bubbles​ are often of vital importance in fueling technological progress. Janeway reviews and distinguishes between various kinds of speculative bubbles over the past two centuries. While many have been unproductive and all have crashed, some bubbles have had a long-run productive impact by spurring investment into real capital and new technology (e.g. railways, electrification, computers). Financial bubbles can often help close financing gaps when venture capital by itself would otherwise have fallen short, and thus have played an instrumental role in accelerating technological innovation.

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Learn more at https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/videos/venture-capital

In this eight-part series, Bill Janeway investigates the relationship between #venturecapital and technological #innovation, and the interdependent roles of entrepreneurial firms, the mission-driven State and financial speculation in the overall innovation system.

Credits: Matthew Kulvicki, Nick Alpha, Gonçalo Fonseca, Athullya Roytman, Kurt Semm