Speculation: A History of the Fine Line between Gambling and Investing

What is the difference between gambling and speculation? This difficult question has posed a legal problem throughout American history. Many have argued that periodic failures by regulators to differentiate between the two have been the proximate causes of catastrophic economic downturns, including the Great Depression and the 2008 global financial crisis. In Speculation, Stuart Banner provides a sweeping history of how the fine lines separating investment, speculation, and outright ga…