From the March 2009 issue of Boomer Market Advisor • Subscribe!
Read yourself to rational behavior  Any good psychiatrist will
tell you recognizing destructive behavior is the first step in
correcting it. In a slight departure from the normal Checklist
format, we highlight seminal works on the topic of irrational
investing; behavior that can kill a portfolio. Courtesy Jonah
Lehrer of the Wall Street Journal, you'd be wise to recommend
them to your boomer clients - and to read them yourselves.
"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" By
Charles Mackay Proving "there is nothing modern about financial
bubbles" writes Leher, this classic work tops the list. Mackay
compiled an exhaustive list of the "schemes, projects and
phantasies" that are a recurring theme of economic history. As
Lehrer notes, from the tulip mania of 17th-century Holland, in
which 12 acres of valuable land were offered for a single bulb,
to the South Sea Bubble of 18th-century England, in which a
cheerleading press spurred