Washington, George, 100–101, 102, 117, 177
Washington Mutual (WaMu) bank run, 135
Watson, IBM computer on Jeopardy, 207
The Way the World Works (Wanniski), 44
“We are the 99%” protests of 2011, 8, 225
weather forecasting, 123–25
Weems, Mason Locke, 100
Weiman, Rita, 139
Welch, Ivo, 300
welfare mother, narrative on, 49–50
When Washington Shut Down Wall Street (Silber), 94
Whewell, William, 12
White, Hayden, 37
Whitman, Walt, 165
Wicked (Broadway musical), 172
Wicked (Maguire), 172
Wikipedia, 7
Wikiquotes, 102
wikis, 7
Williams, James D., 147
Wilson, E. O., 12
Windmill, Alexander, 59
Wizard of Oz (film), 171–72
Wolman, Leo, 241
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum), 171–72, 313n29
Woolf, Virginia, 26
word of mouth: cultural change completed by, 297; cultural changes in use of, 274; investment
decisions and, 298–99; in learning about stock market crash of 1987, 89; popular stories spread
through, x, 3
word-of-mouth marketing, 15, 297
world financial crisis of 2007–9: advertisements for homeownership around time of, 220; automation
narratives and, 205; housing bubble that collapsed during, 154, 155, 217, 222–23, 226, 227;
interpreted as harbinger of “lost decade,” 95; predicted by few economists, xiv; risk taking by
banks ten years later, 55–56; seen through Great Depression narrative, 134–35; stock market
expansion following, 206; thousands of boycotts during, 257
World War I: “Cult of the Offensive” false narrative and, 95; depression following, 197; excess
profits tax imposed by US during, 249, 265; Harding’s appeal for normalcy and, 244–45; Hitler’s
appeal in aftermath of, 122; inflation during, 243–49; monetary policy and, 73; profiteer narrative
and, 241–43; stock exchanges closed at beginning of, 93–94
World War II: Keynes on Versailles treaty and, xvii–xviii, 26; meaning of “postwar” and, 242;
modesty narrative during, 137; monetary policy and, 73; optimistic narratives after, 198; Pearl
Harbor attack and, 81–82; positive market reaction to beginning of, 94, 308n6; technological
unemployment narrative and, 194–95, 196; “victory vacations” shortly after, 198; worldwide
depression preceding, 112
wrestling matches, fake, 84–85
Xi Jinping, 151
Yandex’s Alice, 207
Yellen, Janet L., 250, 300

Young, Kay, 65–66
Young, Warren, 25
“Your World in 90 Seconds,” 103
Zak, Paul J., 54
Zhao, Laijun, 297
Zillow, 218