The Spac bubble works in large part because it’s a confidence game. As actor Joe Mantegna says in the film ‘House of Games’: ‘It is a confidence game. Because you give me your confidence? No. Because I give you mine’

It’s always startling to discover a new generation of investors that is both willing and eager to fall for another stock market mania. The mind-blowing, collective amnesia that has been the Spac bubble provides another example of the risks of an investment proposition seen to offer easy wealth, however illusory.

The bubble was, and remains, sadly, really quite something. In simple terms, the way the ruse works is that a few clever men — yes, mostly men — get together and “sponsor” a new shell company. Known as a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, this comprises nothing more than a pledged aspiration to use the money raised from other people in a profitable way. They conduct an initial public offering, and then find a private company to merge with and take that company public through the merger. Got it?