Smith, Adam, 44, 304n6
Smith, Al, 191
Snowden, Philip, 183–84
social change, and contagion of narratives, 32–33
social comparison: narratives about home prices and, 218, 220; narratives about stock market bubbles
and, 228
social media: changes in contagion caused by, 273, 297; complicating geographic models of spread,
296; economic narratives spread through, xviii, 3, 21; home price narrative and, 218;
reconstructing arc of narratives from, xiii; recurrent narratives and, 109–10; research using data
from, 287. See also Internet
social media marketing, 274–75
social norms, 37. See also scripts
social sciences: controlled experiments in, 78; study of popular narratives in, 15
sociology: economics learning from, 78; narratives central to social change and, 32–33; storytelling
and, 15
Socrates, 34
Something to Look Forward To (Rhys-Williams), 210
source monitoring, 84, 307n21
S&P/CoreLogic/Case-Shiller home price index, 216, 222
speculative bubbles: feedback loop of prices in, 216–17; information cascades and, 300; resembling
sexual selection outcomes in animals, 65; valuation of Bitcoin seen as, 4, 5, 7
speculative investments: flipping and, 223–24; real estate as simplest of, 221; in undeveloped land,
220–21
speculative markets: before crash of 1929, ix, 125–26, 231; Keynes’s explanation of, 63–64
spending: boycott narrative and, 240, 254; hesitation during a recession, 75; postponed after World
War I, 245–46, 249; postponed after World War II, 256; postponed during 1957–58 recession, 264;
postponed during Great Depression, 129, 253–55; postponed in response to rising prices, 239;
reduced by fear of automation, 201; reduced in 1973–75 recession, 256–57; revived after
depression of 1920–21, 251; Roosevelt’s Depression fireside chat and, 278; women making most
decisions in 1920s and 1930s, 254. See also boycott narrative; consumer confidence narrative;
consumption
Sproul, Allan, 262
Star Wars trilogy (Lucas), 203
Steinbeck, John, 131
Sternberg, Robert, 79–80
Steve Jobs (Isaacson), 208
Stewart, William Morris, 166
stimulus. See economic stimulus
stock market: automated advisers for, 275; biggest expansion in US history, 1974–2000, 206;
conversations and news media during corrections, 75; Keynes’s “beauty contest” metaphor and,
63; prices as indicator of public confidence, 129, 228; questionnaire surveys of investors, 285;
speculative bubbles in, 216–17; survey of investors’ decision-making, 298–99; World War I and,
93–94, 283; World War II and, 94, 283, 308n6
stock market boom in 1920s: baffling to economists, 230; crowd psychology and, 119; Groucho
Marx’s take on, 133; ticker projector and, 228–29
stock market boom in 1990s, 109, 206
stock market bubbles, 228; popping in 2000, 29, 83
stock market crash narrative, 228–29, 232–33, 232f; exaggerated assessments of risk and, 67; in
Great Depression, 252; in Great Recession of 2007–9, 272; idea of divine punishment and, 236;
lingering today, 238

stock market crash of 1929: American Dream narrative and, 231; battle between Wall Street and the
Fed prior to, 126; blamed on surplus of goods produced by technology, 186, 192; boom and crash
going viral after, 229; consumption demand falling immediately after, 307n3; disillusionment with
optimistic predictions and, 126–28; economists’ puzzlement over, 229–30; evidence of danger
prior to, 231–32; Fisher’s “permanently high plateau” phrase and, 75–76; high price-earnings ratio
prior to, 231–32; moral narratives about, 235–36; narrative of human folly associated with, 228;
narratives in 1920s and, ix–x, 72; overproduction or underconsumption theory and, 188; references
to 1920–21 depression during, 252–53; rising unemployment prior to, 185–86; shoeshine boy
narrative and, 236–37; “stock market crash” reminding us of, 17; suicide narratives associated
with, 233–35
stock market crash of 1987: discussion of portfolio insurance and, 93; learned about by word of
mouth, 89; narrative compared to 1929, 235; narrative of, 232f, 233; news media reminding public
about, 76
stock price indexes: declining from 1929 to 1932, 230; public attention to, beginning in 1920s and
1930s, 97; public fascination with, 229
stories: basic structures of, 15–16; brain structure and, 54; emotion revealed in, 79; narrative as
particular form of, 36; preference to share information in form of, 54; revealing personal values,
15; spread if we think others will spread them further, 63, 64; thinking in analogies and, 17. See
also narratives
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 33
structuralist literary theory, 16
Success Fundamentals (Marden), 122
suggestibility, 119–22, 120f; of less consumption during the Depression, 142
suicides after crash of 1929, 233–35
suitcases with wheels, 38–39
Sullivan, Mark, 172
sumptuary laws, 136
sunspots, 73–74
Sunstein, Cass, 277–78
super-spreaders, 20, 294
supply-side economics narratives, 48–52
surplus of goods produced by technology, 186, 192, 210
survey research, 285–86
susceptibles in epidemic, 20, 23, 289–90, 291f, 292, 294
Swing Riots in 1830, 174, 176
symbols, reminding people of the narrative, 62
synonyms, different connotations of, 94–95
talk shows, economic narratives spread through, 21
Talleyrand, 172
tax cuts: Laffer curve and, 42, 48, 51; of Reagan administration, 48, 51; supply-side economics and,
48–52
taxes: on corporate profits, 45, 48; Henry George’s single tax on land, 209; narratives of people
paying more than 100%, 49; Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and, 50; reducing incentive to earn and create
jobs, 42, 44; on Social Security benefits combined with Medicare surtax, 305n20
taxpayer revolt around 1978, 50
tax rates, of limited value in understanding economic events, 74–75
Taylor, Zachary, 110
teach-in, 33
technocracy, 192–94