DOW 36,000 Redux

Rakesh Bhandari bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Sat Aug 21 12:39:18 PDT 1999


Enrique concludes a very helpful post:
>. People
>today fret about the internet bubble: I don't think what's so bad about
>relieving the rich and stupid of their money and using the part of it that
>isn't skimmed in stock options to build an excellent and mostly free
>information infrastructure.

It seems those stupid people who don't get out in time are the small time players hoping to secure their old age in the face of the collapse of their pension plans. We have the makings of a great swindle here.

One wonders moreover whether the concentration of global capital in the US stock market driven by .com mania (mis-)directs too much human activity (including global scientific and technical talent) into the building of this high speed network which on the face of it will do little to solve the major problems facing the bottom 1/3rd of humanity--though it has given us here a life after television (it's interesting how easy it is to forget this once one has entered the matrix). And from a technological point of view, there have already been complaints that the semiconductor business has been slighted in light of internet mania. Yet progress in the one on its own terms can't be had or expected without progress in the other. So on its own terms or on broader terms, I don't see how internet mania or more broadly the influence the stock market does indeed have on the composition of real investment is rational. This is over and above the Keynesian problem of how speculation on the stock market can become an end in itself, sucking up resources and talent better used elsewhere.

Yours, Rakesh



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