[KAUAIBOUND]

If you are referring to the Nasdaq or Enron, Worldcom, you are correct. But to attribute the economic boom of the '90s to the dotcoms is to ignore the incredible jump in the S & P or the Dow, "the old economy". The Dow was just above 3800 when the Republicans took control of Congress at the beginning of 1995. Today, it finished at 10,488. This is an 11.2% annual rate of return on price alone. With dividends reinvested, it is probably 13 to 14%, well ahead of the historical averages. My 401K and IRAs did quite well in the past 5 years, being primarily invested in real estate and small cap value stock funds. The investors who chased the dotcoms got burned. Some made out well - my old college roommate is the Chief Medical Officer of a biotech, and sold $1.8 million of his stock at $72 per share in March of 2000, just below its peak of $75 - its now at about $5.

[Huck]

But to attribute the economic boom of the '90s to the dotcoms is to ignore the incredible jump in the S & P or the Dow, "the old economy". The Dow was just above 3800 ...at the beginning of 1995. Today, it finished at 10,488. This is an 11.2% annual rate of return on price alone.

The attribution is just a facile way of protecting one's own cherished notions.