In my opinion, Charles Mackey's "The Tulipomania from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" had been the most important to me. It was a perfect example of Americas constant search to have the most and be the best without any rational explanation. For example in his story he explains how everyone wants the 'rare' items such as the tulip. Rare items that can only be purchased by the wealthy and the want of everyone to look at them for being wealthy. It is the want of the status symbol, "In the course of ten or eleven years after this period, tulips were much sought after by the wealthy, and paid the most extravagant prices for them."
When everyone wants something more and more people want to get in the business, seeing a big profit. …