Rating: 
Summary: Good if dry coverage of dot.com bust
Review: There have been a lot of books about the crash of the high tech market. This is one of the best. The coverage is thorough if at times tedious. Cassidy makes an excellent case that the lack of a business model and the prevalent "greater fool" theory led to the demise of the Internet bubble. Too many pitched the idea that if their site captured just one percent of a [Hundred] billion-dollar market, than the firm would be a success. Only even one percent was a pipe dream, and perhaps a dozen firms had the same idea. And the "greater fool" theory suggests that even if the originators are wrong, somebody else will be foolish enough to buy them out.Cassidy concludes his good work with a lengthy table of dot.com failures, a sobering story in itself. Perhaps it is so sobering that the life and exhuberance of the subject drained away. I found the last third of the book to be more of a continuous litany of mistakes and I lost much of my interest.
Rating:
Summary: Keen analysis and overall good perspective
Review: This book is a thorough reflection on the "New Age" economy, which was particularly driven by NASDAQ, high technology for the corporate masses, and the advent of the Internet. As someone who was coming of age in the corporate world at the turn of the century, I used to feel very guilty about letting a stack of Washington Posts pile up--I wanted to read the latest analysis about what was happening in the Internet sector so I could understand how and why it was eroding. After reading Dot.con I don't feel as bad about throwing away that stack of business sections! Throughout most of the book I felt like I was reading a thoughtful and intelligent piece about the buildup, mania and erosion of the Internet economy. The author clearly did his homework with the analysis, but don't worry--the book isn't loaded with charts. For the most part I thought the author maintained an objective perspective that serves the reader well--though the analysis of September 11 struck me as hasty and a little sensational. I would most recommend this book to an audience that takes an intellectual curiosity in the 1995-2001 American economy. Other readers have unfairly criticized this book for being predictable and redundant--I'm not sure they realize this book is supposed to be a history book and not a novel!
Rating: 
Summary: Easy read but idelogically driven
Review: This is a good overview, albeit very superficial, of the factors that drove the irrational exhuberance of the late 90s. The role of the financial media, the so-called stock analysts, and others is explored and the consequence of the synergistic effects on the collective mind of the suckers who invested in the dot.com companies is highlighted. Despite the book develops a dry topic, the book is an easy read; it reads well and will most certainly capture the interest of many readers. On the negative side, this book can hardly be regarded as objective; the author has most certainly an ideological resentment against the Fed and Greenspan in particular. This is not necessarily a bad thing - however, the criticism revolves around serious innacuracies in terms of the outlook and the role of Greenspan and the Fed in the NASDAQ crash. It is unfortnate that the author had to resort to blatant lies when describing how the Fed and Greenspan viewed the role of the Internet and the growth of the dot.com stock bubble. Readers looking for a an interesting non-fiction book, may be keen to read this book but serious analysts of the background of the NASDAQ debacle should look elsewhere - the inaccuracies are far too overwhelming.
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