In light of the recent news on Wall Street, I've been reading my colleague Larry Mitchell's new book, The Speculation Economy: How Finance Triumphed Over Industry (also available soon in paperback). It's about the creation of the modern corporation and the rise of the stock market in the late 19th and early 20th century. Mitchell argues that changes at the time made stock prices and finance a higher priority than the health of companies, creating the seeds of a speculation-based economy. Mitchell is more more inclined toward market intervention than most VC readers will be, but it's still an interesting read and certainly a timely one.