It may have been a fictional invention to illustrate the absurdity of the financial speculation associated with the South Sea Bubble of 1720.

Nonetheless, the “company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage but nobody to know what it is” really does have a contemporary equivalent.

This is the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a vehicle that raises money from investors specifically to invest in mergers and acquisitions.

Whether or not SPAC-related IPOs have moved into bubble territory remains an open question.

But the market certainly surged in 2020, especially in the US, whe...