November 22, 2003   Home  l  Broadcast  l  2003 Experts  l   About Us  l  Contact Us

Maggie Mahar, Author
Bull! A History of the Boom, 1982-1999

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11/22/2003 Interview
Real Audio  Mp3

In Bull!, Maggie Mahar tells the sweeping tale of the Great Bull Market of 1982-1999, a legendary run-up that pulled the entire nation into its gravitational field.

Mahar lays out the origins of the boom and takes the reader behind the scenes, on Wall Street, on Main Street, and in Washington, letting him see the story through the eyes of the fund managers, market gurus, analysts, politicians, business journalists, and 401(k) investors who, together, helped create the longest-running bull market in U.S. history. Some were touts; others were true believers. On the sidelines, a Greek Chorus of seasoned professionals tried, vainly, to describe the emperor's new clothes.

Filled with colorful portraits of many of the central figures of the boom years-Alan Greenspan, Henry Blodget, James Cramer, Abby Joseph Cohen-Bull! draws together a complex cast of characters, illuminating the web of relationships that kept the market aloft.

More than a financial history, Bull! is a lively, often witty social history of the stock market that became a part of popular culture. It is also the tale of individual investors, which chronicles the intimate stories of ordinary people-housewives and college professors, salesmen and waitresses-who got caught up in the excitement and then watched their life savings drain away.

How did it happen that the very real risks of investing in stocks were forgotten? Mahar explodes the myth of "stocks for the long run," explaining how the market's promoters crunched the numbers to create the illusion that if an investor stays in the casino just a little longer, he is guaranteed to come out a winner. Casting Warren Buffett in a new light, she explains how a value investor is, in the end, a long-term market timer who understands that success depends on how much you pay when you get into the market-and when you get out. By putting the bull market of 1982-1999 in a larger historical context, she shows how, over time, longtime bull markets beget longtime bear markets.

Before becoming a financial journalist, Maggie Mahar was an English professor at Yale University, teaching 19th and 20th century poetry and prose. In 1982, she began covering financial markets, freelancing for Money magazine, Institutional Investor, and The New York Times, before joining Barron's as a senior writer in 1986. There, she wrote cover stories about Wall Street and Washington, specializing in profiles and investigative pieces. In 1998, she wrote a column about international markets and economics for Bloomberg.

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