"Adam Smith on Speculation as Witchcraft" (now with Voodoo Beach Bunnies)

A repost from March, 2012.
Original post:
I've had a few rambles on the topic, link below.
[rambling? you? -ed]
From Streetwise Professor:

In a post earlier this evening, I said that anti-speculation frenzies dated from the 19th century.  But they in fact date back much further. In Book IV, Ch. 5 of Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith analyzed the irrational attacks on commodity speculation:

The popular fear of engrossing and forestalling [types of speculative activity outlawed in England] may be compared to the popular terrors and suspicions of witchcraft. The unfortunate wretches accused of this latter crime were not more innocent of the misfortunes imputed to them than those who have been accused of the former....MORE

HT: FT Alphaville

From "This is What a Bear Market Looks Like Folks (now with Voodoo Beach Bunnies)":

One etymology of the word speculation:

c.1374, "contemplation, consideration," from O.Fr. speculation, from L.L. speculationem (nom. speculatio) "contemplation, observation," from L. speculatus, pp. of speculari "observe," from specere "to look at, view" (see scope (1)). Disparaging sense of "mere conjecture" is recorded from 1575. Meaning "buying and selling in search of profit from rise and fall of market value" is recorded from 1774; short form spec is attested from 1794. Speculator in the financial sense is first recorded 1778. Speculate is a 1599 back-formation.

That is not the etymology grandmother taught me. Hers had to do with Italian merchants keeping watchtowers manned to spot sails over the horizon, enabling those who could see furthest to sell off inventory before goods-ladened ships made harbor and crashed the market. More like this etymology at Wictionary:

From Latin speculātus, past participle of speculor (“‘look out’”), from specula (“‘watchtower’”), from specio (“‘look at’”)

Either way, the current market does not lend itself to either contemplation or seeing over the horizon....

If you are curious about the Voodoo Beach Bunnies I was answering the question posed in "Death of the American Dream? (nah)":

 

What can I say, it was the 80's.