Whenever a bubble bursts, there are some stories from their peaks that morph into endlessly-recounted legends that symbolise how mad people had become.

The paragon example is the listing of Pets.com in February 2000. It was far from the biggest IPO of the era, or the biggest failure. But the fact that it was able even go public so despite de minimis revenues has made it the most popular dotcom punchline.

Then there are things like strippers with multiple NINJA loans in 2007; the land under Tokyo’s Imperial Palace being worth more than all of California; a Scottish adventurer inventing an entire country to issue bonds, the formation of a company “for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is”; or 100,000 guilders being paid for a single Semper Augustus tulip bulb.