The interval prime as much as the good melancholy witnessed the increase of the commercial forecasters, pioneers who sought to take advantage of the instruments of technology to foretell the longer term, with the purpose of making the most of their forecasts. This ebook chronicles the lives and careers of the boys who outlined this primary wave of financial fortune tellers, males equivalent to Roger Babson, Irving Fisher, John Moody, C. J. Bullock, and Warren people. They competed to promote their designated equipment of prediction to traders and companies, and thrived within the growth years that international battle I. but, virtually to a guy, they did not expect the devastating crash of 1929.

Walter Friedman paints vibrant photographs of marketers who shared a trust that the rational international of numbers and cause may well tame--or a minimum of foresee--the irrational gyrations of the marketplace. regardless of their disasters, this primary new release of monetary forecasters helped to make the prediction of monetary tendencies a primary monetary job, and make clear the mechanics of economic markets by means of supplying quite a number information and data approximately person corporations. additionally they raised questions which are nonetheless correct this present day. what's technological know-how and what's in basic terms guesswork in forecasting? What motivates humans to shop for forecasts? Does the act of forecasting set in movement unexpected occasions which can counteract the forecast made?

Masterful and compelling, Fortune Tellers highlights the chance and uncertainty which are inherent to capitalism itself.