Overview

This profile considers the 1990s 'dot-com bubble', wireless and broadband booms.

The internet boom & bust of the past decade is of interest as the latest occurrence of what Robert Shiller characterised as "irrational exuberance" - an echo of past euphoria decorated by new technologies such as radio or railways - and for the way that innovation is perceived (and exploited) by government, the media and society at large.

The crash is also an illustration of what Eli Noam characterised as "irrational depression" in Wall Street and other markets.

     in this profile

This profile comprises-

• orientation - writing about the nature of behavioural finance and historical perspectives provided by past booms.
• tulips - archetypal booms and busts such as tulipmania, the South Sea Bubble and Mississippi Boom
• steam age - the railway bubble, highlighting economic, historical and psychological studies
• jazz & plastic - delirium and innovation in the age of the 'radio bubble' and 'transistor bubble'
• property - the 1980s Japanese property bubble and other real estate bubbles
• golden fleece? - precedents in Australia's history - such as the 1890s land boom, 1960s mineral boom and 1980s exuberance - are examined
• inflections - an itemisation of major financial panics, crashes and other inflection points
• a snapshot of the dotcom bubble
• the dotcom page looks at dotcom companies, highlighting particular incidents, valuations and consequences. It also points to memoirs by participants.
• the telecoms page considers the telecommunications bubble that coincided with the dotcom frenzy
• peaks - peak market values and post-crash troughs for selected dot-coms
• the au bubble - speculation, hysteria and hubris in contemporary Australia
• the actors page discusses analysts, brokers, government agencies, investors and other participants in the 1990s boom (and who will presumably energise future exuberance)
• media discusses media scepticism, infatuation and received wisdom about dotcoms, the 'new economy' and telecommunications
• fiction considers depictions of booms and busts in film and the novel
• accounting considers financial reporting, auditing, expectations and responsibilities
• regulators - the activity (and inactivity) of public and private sector regulators
• bubble 2.0? - a second dot-com bubble, centred on social network services such as Facebook?
• sinobubble - giddiness in China as a perspective on past emerging economy bubbles
• landmarks highlights particular incidents during the dotcom decade and aftermath.

Separate guides on this site explore particular issues in more detail, in particular the guides on the 'Information Economy', Governance and Networks. The Ketupa.net site supplies more detailed profiles of major media groups such as Vivendi, Viacom and AOL Time Warner.

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