Keynes’s Beauty Contest.pdf

13. KEYNES’S BEAUTY CONTEST For almost four d cad s, Harry’s at Hanov r Squar has b n a popular Wall Str t gin mill. Op n d in 1972 by Harry Poulakakos, a Gr k immigrant who pr viously had b n a h adwait r at th n arby D lmonico’s, it clos d for a tim som y ars ago but is now op rating again, und r Harry’s son, P t r. On th v ning of Monday, Octob r 19, 1987, I rush d downtown from my apartm nt in th Villag , xp cting to find som Wall Str t typ s crying into th ir glass s: that day, th Dow had plumm t d 508 points, from 2,246.73 to 1,738.74, its bigg st p rc ntag fall in history—22.6 p rc nt. Th s lling had b n so int ns that th N w York Stock Exchang ’s trading syst ms had buckl d. Many brok rs had stopp d answ ring th ir phon s, and x cut d ord rs had b n r port d up to an hour lat , l aving inv stors unabl to t ll wh r stocks w r trading. To my surpris , Harry’s was pack d, and th r was a carnival atmosph r . Trad rs and brok rs w r busy r galing j ournalists with d tails of th crash; whit -shirt d wait rs w r f rrying trays of champagn and whisk y; glamorous wom n of unc rtain origin w r on hand. As a young r port r