Bull!

Bull! offers a lively account of the long US stock market boom from 1982 to 2004, examining how easy money, deregulation, Wall Street sales culture, and perverse incentives combined to inflate asset prices and set the stage for painful busts. Maggie Mahar follows investors, brokers, corporate executives, regulators, and the Federal Reserve to show how short-termism, lax oversight, and misleading financial practices fueled bubbles and eroded public trust. Blending investigative reporting with accessible economic analysis, the book recounts key episodes and scandals, assesses their human and policy costs, and argues for stronger transparency and investor protections to prevent future cycles of excess and collapse.