The Invention of Psychology Predated the Invention of Macroeconomics

What I can tell you: Sell your stock at the market’s peak and buy when it hits bottom.
What I can’t tell you: When the market is at its peak or when it’s hit bottom.

Finance and economics exist at the intersection of hard facts and human behavior—the interplay between mathematical calculations and animal spirits. In retrospect, it seemed inevitable that William James and Sigmund Freud would invent modern psychology before John Maynard Keynes invented macroeconomics. Human psychology is as influential as industrial capital in shaping economies and markets, driven in part by the power of mood and in part by analysts making precise calculations with inherently speculative numbers.