New York City -- In his classic 1841 book Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Scottish journalist Charles Mackay pinned the blame for financial panics on the herd instinct. As interpreted by financier Bernard Baruch who wrote an introduction to a reprint published after the 1929 Crash, otherwise intelligent people in a herd "act like blockheads." As fear trumps reason and emotion rules, people in panics lose their ability to act...