Where the Money Grows and Anatomy of the Bubble (Wiley Investment Classics)

"The easiest way into Wall Street is by the Hall of Delusions, through which many have entered who forgot to return. That door stands always wide open. No legend of warning affronts the eye. There ought to be one, and it should read: 'No Safe Conduct Here.'" —from Where the Money Grows.

A tour d'horizon of Wall Street and the creatures who inhabit it, Where the Money Grows has withstood the test of time to become a true investment classic. Filled with salient observations and rich portraits that are as incisive today as they were decades ago, this entertaining volume brings Wall Street past and present to vibrant life. Now, with a new Foreword by Esquire financial columnist Christopher Byron, Where the Money Grows introduces a new audience to—as well as reacquaints old admirers with—a milestone work long considered to be one of the best investment books ever written.

Written by Garet Garrett, a leading financial writer widely admired for his wry wit and inimitable sense of satire, Where the Money Grows is a colorful chronicle of the ways in which money circulates in the markets, and of the diverse, devious, and dynamic characters in hot pursuit. With insights that remain brilliantly on target today, Where the Money Grows concisely captures the quirks, deceptions, idiosyncrasies, and downright craziness of the most famous street in the world.

With Garrett as your guide, you'll walk down the "Hall of Delusions" and meet "The Trader," "The Hoodoo," "The Manipulator," and "The Wall Street Wolf," among others. And in chapters such as "The Way of a Client" and "Taking Trouble Home," you'll read about—and no doubt recognize—some of the traditions and superstitions that have been a part of Wall Street life and legend since the beginning.

Who, for example, doesn't recognize Garrett's description of certain august institutions?

"About a large private banking house in Wall Street there is an air of omniscience as if nothing unexpected could ever happen. Doors do not slam, men walk softly upon rugs, voices are never lifted in feverish excitement over profit and loss . . . Ceilings in a banking house are higher than ceilings anywhere else."

Or his portrait of "The Hoodoo":

"The hoodoo is often a man whom everybody likes, speaks well of, and recommends to everyone else, with one reservation—he is a man who has unaccountably not succeeded. . . Wall Street people may or may not be superstitious, but they think it pays to associate with success and avoid failure in its personal embodiment."

Or "The Trader":

"His brokers buy him lunch at midday, dinner uptown at night, and pet him when he is winning. He pretends to scorn them."

Succinct, yet enormously humorous and revealing, Where the Money Grows is a treasure of a book that takes its well-deserved place among the annals of classic investment literature.

Hugely popular when it was first published in 1911, and regarded as a classic ever since, Where the Money Grows is an honest, humorous, and richly perceptive tour of Wall Street and its enduring customs, institutions, and characters. The Street, according to author Garet Garrett, is a world populated not only by bulls and bears, but also by "wolves," "hoodoos," and "invisibles." You'll meet them all in this immensely entertaining and revealing book.

Also included is a scintillating article, "Anatomy of the Bubble," originally published in the Saturday Evening Post. In piercing prose, Garrett unmasks the "debt" bubble and displays uncanny prescience. Debt, it would seem, can be every bit as dangerous as manias and other "irrational exuberance."