• picture
  • picture
  • picture
  • picture
Public Radio's Environmental News Magazine (follow us on Google News)

The Living on Earth Almanac

Air Date: Week of

Facts about. . . the origins of the stock market phrase "bull" and "bear" markets.

Transcript

NUNLEY: Are you feeling bearish or bullish? If you're a player in the financial market you're always being subjected to the whims of one or the other of the totem animals of capitalism. About 150 years ago bears and finance were linked in the term "bear skin jobber." The phrase referred to speculators who'd sell the promise of bear skins at a high price before they'd actually caught the animals. Later they would buy actual bear skins when the price dropped. But what of the bull? Well, round about the time the term bear was coined, bears and bulls were often pitted against each other in baiting rings. People bet on the outcome of a fight between the two huge creatures, so the word "bull" gained usage as the opposite of "bear." Today, although we're experiencing a prolonged bull market, there's one bear market that's growing fast. Teddy bears have become a hot collector's item. A 1904 Steif Teddy recently sold at an auction at Christie's in London for the record price of nearly $200,000. And for this week that's the Living on Earth Almanac.

 

 

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Living on Earth
62 Calef Highway, Suite 212
Lee, NH 03861
Telephone: 617-287-4121
E-mail: comments@loe.org

Newsletter [Click here]

Donate to Living on Earth!
Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

Newsletter
Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox. Sign up for our newsletter today!

Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea.

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment.

Contribute to Living on Earth and receive, as our gift to you, an archival print of one of Mark Seth Lender's extraordinary wildlife photographs. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs.

Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth