Manias, Panics, and Crashes: Can We Learn to Avoid Great Financial Mistakes?

Markets are notoriously prone to “manias, panics and crashes,” often recognized only after they burst. After Covid interrupted a bull market almost 12 years long in 2020, markets surged as the pandemic receded, rekindling debate about possible excess in passive investing and private credit. Today, AI is the focus. Guided by history, panelists will examine the financial mechanics and real-economy implications of the AI investment surge. Where is value created, who captures it—and who does not? Today’s discussion will explore whether AI follows a familiar speculative pattern or represents a new kind of potentially deflationary bubble, in which massive investment drives down costs, accelerates productivity, and restructures labor. Joining forces, historians, economists, investors, and journalists will examine warning signs, capital flows, and structural shifts to assess what this moment means for investors, markets, and society.