(Or, I have not the Time or Wherewithall to Write a Proper Blog-Post, So I will just Fill Space with some Quotes that have long Lodged in my Brain.)
Mr. Charles Mackay, LL. D., writing, almost 170 years ago, on France and the Mississippi Scheme:
...For a time, while confidence lasted, an impetus was given to trade which could not fail to be beneficial. In Paris especially the good results were felt. Strangers flocked into the capital from every part, bent not only upon making money, but on spending it. ... The housekeepers were obliged to make up beds in garrets, kitchens, and even stables, for the accommodation of lodgers; and the town was so full of carriages and vehicles of every description, that they were obliged in the principal streets, to drive at a foot-pace for fear of accidents. The looms of the country worked with unusual activity to supply rich laces, silks, broad-cloth, and velvets, which being paid for in abundant paper, increased in price four-fold. ... New houses were built in every direction; an illusory prosperity shone over the land, and so dazzled the eyes of the whole nation, that none could see the dark cloud on the horizon announcing the storm that was too rapidly approaching.
...It is inconceivable to those who were witnesses of the horrors of those times, and who look back on them now as on a dream, that a sudden revolution did not break out... the people confined themselves to complaints; a sombre and timid despair, a stupid consternation, had seized upon all, and men's minds were too vile even to be capable of a courageous crime.
...In a constitutional monarchy some surer means would have been found for the restoration of public credit. In England, at a subsequent period, when similar delusion had brought on a similar distress, how different were the measures taken to repair the evil! but in France, unfortunately, the remedy was left to the authors of the mischief.*