Dot. Con: Real Story Of Why The Internet Bubble Burst, The

Description: This is a sceptical history of the internet/stock market boom. John Cassidy argues that what we have just witnessed wasn't simply a stock market bubble; it was a social and cultural phenomenon driven by broad historical forces. Cassidy explains how these forces combined to produce the buying hysteria that drove the prices of loss-making companies into the stratosphere. Much has been made of Alan Greenspan's phrase "irrational exuberance", but Cassidy shows that there was nothing irrational about what happened. The people involved - fund managers, stock analysts, journalists and pundits - were simply acting in their own self-interest. Technology provided the raw material for the boom, but that is only part of the story. "Dot.con" describes and explains the all-too-human behaviour of the stock market bubble: how it got going; sustained itself for longer than anybody expected; and then, just when people were starting to think it might not be a speculative bubble after all, went pop.



Contents: From memex to world wide web; popular capitalism; information superhighway; netscape; the stock market; ipo; yahoo!; battle for the 'net; irrational exuberance; amazon.com; the new economy; a media bubble; greenspan's green light; euphoria; queen of the 'net; trading nation; web dreams; warning signs; the fed strikes; crash; dead dotcoms.



Author Biography: Formerly writer on business and the economy for THE SUNDAY TIMES, now at THE NEW YORKER.