ISSN:
1612-6041
Content:
Milton Friedman hung up the phone in disgruntlement. The most influential economist of the postwar era had just called three different banks, one in Chicago and then two in New York, in order to initiate a financial transaction. He wanted to sell short $300,000 in pound sterling. Short selling is a technique for speculating on falling prices. Initially, speculators can only speculate on rising prices: they buy something and hope that it gains value, so that they can sell it at a profit. If the price for this asset goes down instead, the speculator incurs a loss when he resells it. So in order to profit from falling prices, speculators need to sell first and buy later – which is indeed possible if what is sold now is in fact only to be delivered a few weeks later. If the speculator is right and prices fall in the interim, he can buy cheap just before delivery is due and thus profit from having already sold what, at the time, he had not yet owned.
Note:
Literaturangaben
In:
Zeithistorische Forschungen, Potsdam : Zentrum für Zeithist. Forschung, 2004, 12(2015), 3, Seite 500-510, 1612-6041
In:
volume:12
In:
year:2015
In:
number:3
In:
pages:500-510
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe Engel, Alexander, 1975 - The bang after the boom: understanding financialization 2015
Language:
English
Keywords:
Kreditmarkt
;
Kapitalismus
;
Kommerzialisierung
;
Geschichte 1970-
DOI:
10.14765/zzf.dok-1431
URL:
Volltext
(kostenfrei)
URL:
Volltext
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Author information:
Engel, Alexander 1975-
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