Tulip Bulb Mania

It's spring in Western New York so what better to talk about than the Tulip Bubble of the late 16th Century?

From the Stock-Market-Crash blog's section on Famous Bubbles:

Tulip Bulb Mania:

"In less than one month, the price of tulip bulbs went up twenty-fold! To put that into perspective, if you had invested $1,000 and came back on month later, your investment would have ballooned to $20,000! Now you can understand the mad rush to buy tulip bulbs at any cost. Tulip bulb mania"

and later:

"The price of tulips at the height of the mania was $76,000; 6 weeks later they were valued at less than one dollar!"

While it looks like a bubble to most, there are those who disagree. For instance, Day (1994) claims that the events of the period have been overblown and, contrary to most other reports, the economy did not suffer that much following the price decline.

Mmm, it sure looks like a bubble to me.