History
The Code of Hammurabi 1700 B.C. provided a legal framework for investment establishing a means for the pledge of collateral by codifying debtor and creditor rights in regard to pledged land. Punishments for breaking financial obligations were not as severe as those for crimes involving injury or death.
In the early 1900s purchasers of stocks, bonds, and other securities were described in media, academia, and commerce as speculators. By the 1950s the term investment had been co-opted by financial brokers and their advertising agencies to promote speculation. By the late 1900s the terms speculation and speculator were somewhat down played by the media, likely due to turmoil in the capital markets ever since the tech boom bubble pop, and the historical fascination with blaming wall street speculators for all the ills of the world, had mysteriously returned to the newspapers. The public is instead fed the word investor or investment instead of speculator or speculation, even though the bulk of the activities are not investment grade.
Read more about this topic: Investment
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