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Dot.Con: The Real Story of Why the Internet Bubble Burst
 
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Dot.Con: The Real Story of Why the Internet Bubble Burst (Paperback)

by John Cassidy (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
John Cassidy's Dot.con is the most sweeping and definitive assessment published thus far of the stock market mania that swept this country in the late 1990s. Cassidy, who covers economics and finance for The New Yorker finds many seeds for the boom: Vannerver Bush's "memex" machine, the "intellectual forerunner of the World Wide Web"; increasing popularity of 401K and IRAs, which introduced millions of Americans to the equity markets, giving rise to a "stock market culture"; and the attention and hype in the late 80s and early 90s surrounding the "information superhighway" promoted by the likes of Al Gore, Newt Gingrich and Nicolas Negroponte. When Netscape went public in 1995, the Internet-mania began a five-year run that was fueled in part by the media, the policies promoted by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, the rise of day trading and the deluge of IPOs brought to market by firms such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch and their analyst cheerleaders Mary Meeker and Henry Blodget. For anyone who got caught up in the mania and foundered in its eventual crash, Dot.con is a bittersweet trip down memory lane that Cassidy captures just perfectly. --Harry C Edwards --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Guardian
“Admirably lucid and comprehensive” --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent read. You couldn't make it up, really., 21 Feb 2002
By M. Potter "mattpotter4" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Dot.Con: Greatest Story Ever Sold (Paperback)
From the first couple of chapters, in which Cassidy takes the reader through the workings of market booms and crowd madness, and also gives an extremely useful, potted history of the thinking that led to the internet (WW1 is where it starts, sort of), it's a knuckle-whitening ride through the blizzard of claims, conflicting interests, spiralling expectations and reckless bets that created, sustained and drove the dotcom boom to ever sillier, more precarious heights. The tension as the inevitable crash approaches is handled like a master novelist, never mind a financial journalist. Really excellent book. Captures the moment when everyone seemed to be a dotcom millionaire - and the moment shortly afterwards when no-one was - perfectly. I loved this. Kept missing my stop on the London Underground because of it anyway.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Isn't hindsight great?, 7 Aug 2002
This review is from: Dot.Con: Greatest Story Ever Sold (Paperback)
It was interesting to read another person's account of the situation, especially since I worked in the industry during the dot.com peak. The narrative style accurately captures the mounting frenzy that pervaded both the US and the UK and abundance of facts presented provides an extremely frustrating hindsight.

To my mind, this book is essential reading for anybody interested in the Internet sector, as well as anybody who wants to learn a little more about the "workings" of the stock market.

After reading the book it's clear to see why many investors have become extremely cautious over the past few years.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Competent but not without flaws, 30 April 2003
By Mr. O. Buxton "Olly Buxton" (Highgate, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Dot.Con: Greatest Story Ever Sold (Paperback)
The first thing you'd say about this book is that, however clever the title, it's erroneous: this isn't the story of a "con" at all, it's the story of a speculative bubble.

The whole point is that no-one was "conned" by the hot air. As Cassidy mentions from the outset, the prospectuses all contained large print health warnings in prominent places: "THIS COMPANY HAS NEVER MADE ANY MONEY, MOST LIKELY NEVER WILL" - but the punters still bought and bought. There were many psychological and sociological factors at play, but deception was not one of them.

For all that, Dot Con is well researched, well written and entertaining into the bargain (my copy was the paperback second edition in which the typos & manifest errors spotted by keen Amazonians (none of which, in my view, was earth-shattering) had been corrected). Cassidy describes briefly and competently the history of the internet and the general financial environment of the last 50 years, and then takes you into the maelstrom of the bubble from 1995 to 2001, all of which he portrays in suitably stunned-mullet fashion. The new edition features a lengthy epilogue which surveys the wreckage and covers the subsequent inquiry into the practices of investment banking firms and their uneasy relationships with their research analysts, all of which is still very current.

While he doesn't really dwell on it, I think Cassidy would come out in favour of more market regulation and intervention: He's especially critical of the Fed's approach to monetary policy and the atmosphere on the street which led to the boom in the first place.

In some ways (though it's hardly fashionable to say so) the investment banking firms and fund managers were as much victims of this as anyone: while the roof is blowing off the market and the choice is to join in and make hay, or watch your competitors annexing large portions of your market share while you sit on your hands, it is a singular Wall Street firm indeed which chooses to sit the boom out.

In any event this is a thoughtful and well put together book and serves as a pretty good overview of some of the most remarkable times in the history of modern finance.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars What a con
Though undoubtedly less damaging to my bank balance than the dodgy stocks I bought during the Internet boom, the hype and praise heaped on this book sucked me into yet another... Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2003 by netnutter

1.0 out of 5 stars Con of a Dot.con book
I'm not totally convinced by this book. Emily Bell's Observer review notes that much of this book is taken from secondary sources. Read more
Published on 5 May 2003 by John Ireland

4.0 out of 5 stars The fool, or the fool who follows him?
There's no doubt that the whole world took leave of its senses during the dot com bubble - a journey which this book captures with clarity and some objectivity. Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2002 by Philip Drylands

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes the dot.com bubble relevant to us all
Cassidy's book is primarily about the herd instinct in the human psyche rather than exclusively about dot.coms or financial markets. Read more
Published on 24 May 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good review of all aspects of the dot com bubble
This book bridges the gap between a reference text and a summary of the dot com bubble. Looking at all aspects of society, the growth of disposable income, to the Federal reserve... Read more
Published on 2 May 2002 by P. A. Buchan

2.0 out of 5 stars Reminded me of the last 8 years
This book reminded me of the last 8 years from when i installed the first nsca httpd server run the first copy of mosaic setup the first site - and bought the first internet stock... Read more
Published on 26 April 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Some went mad, some ran away...
Cassidy reminds me of the diligent investigator at a serious car wreck, carefully measuring the skid marks and leaving chalk marks on the road to show where it all started to go... Read more
Published on 17 April 2002 by Emteq

5.0 out of 5 stars Named and shamed
In this book, Cassidy goes behind the scenes and names and shames those most responsible for the internet bubble of the late 1990s. Read more
Published on 2 April 2002 by ad_crumenam

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