The Great Beanie Baby Bubble

This was a quick, interesting read about the factors and forces behind the Beanie Bubble craze and crash. As someone who frantically called every McDonalds in the St. Louis area to find the right Teeny Beanie Baby for my 7 year old daughter (I was in it to make her happy, not to make money), it was a reminder that smart people often behave totally irrationally. The information the author was able to gather about Ty Warner's upbringing and management style paints the picture of a brilliant but paranoid and obsessive individual who was incapable of caring about anyone but himself. I could have lived with fewer pages devoted to Warner's two girlfriends, but they experienced the rise and fall of Beanie Babies and both victims of Warner's emotional cruelty, so their contributions are important too.

The lesson is, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Also, there's a sucker born every minute.