Rating: 
Summary: a tale of our times for all times
Review: John Cassidy writes a masterful chronicle of the dot.com years. It is rare to get the definitive history of an era so quickly after it has passed, but Cassidy's short and readable book does just that. For the lay reader with no background in economics or computer science, he explains just how financial bubbles evolve and what the forces were that led to absurd overvaluation of internet companies. He also weaves in profiles of the major personalities of the dot.com era as well as historical comparissions with earlier speculative bubbles. All the while Cassidy manages to be highly engaging and keep the reader hooked to the story. I have already recommend the book to all my friends and I hope you will enjoy it too.
Rating:
Summary: This book is spot on in recounting the madness
Review: As a money manager who "didn't get it" in 1999 and was ridiculed by those who did, "Dot.con" is a chilling autopsy of the madness of the inflation and bursting of the internet/tech bubble. Cassidy does a fantastic job weaving the story out of the interests and perspectives of all of the players. In hindsight, it seems so unlikely that so many "smart" people would have taken part and/or been duped by this madness. As we all know, all but a select few drank the "New Economy" kool-aid. The book also highlights the conflicted nature of brokerage firms and industry analysts. I hope all of the people who got burned by the events of 1996-2000 have learned their lesson. Unfortunately, I fear that no lesson has been learned.
Rating: 
Summary: A few errors
Review: There are a number of errors in this book. For example, the author states that the Altair computer was named after a chracter in the movie Star Wars. Funny, Star Wars was released after the Altair. Hahah The Altair computer was named from a star named Altair. A glaring error and sloppy work that needed to be corrected before press time. Other errors follow.
Rating: 
Summary: not good enough
Review: The author failed to tell the whole story and should write more info.on the rise and fall of the CMGI Inc. How and why CMGI CEO David Wetherell blocked the merger between Lycos and USA network? Since CMGI was such an important company throughout the boom and the collapse of the internet stock sector. Basically the book is being written like a newspaper, only storytelling and the author provided no real explaination of the collapse of the nasdaq stock market.
Rating: 
Summary: Barely history but a story dying to be told.
Review: Intrigued immediately by the title, I was able to pick up an early copy of DOT.CON, a new offering by New Yorker staff writer John Cassidy. Even before donning the covers of this book, the title brought back memories, good and not-so-good, recounting the most turbulent and interesting perior in stock market history since the '29 Crash.While the mania surrounding the internet has not waned, the investment in "Dot.Com's" certainly has. The internet is here to stay however, we now know that the vast array of companies attempting to capitalize on the Net's popularity won't be as fortunate. Conversely, reliving the days of pugnacious entrepreneurs who were nothing more than keyboard simpletons, neophyte investors puffing their way through cocktail parties touting their latest security conquests and mindless, self-appointed gurus pontificating their seemingly clairvoyant ability to call the market (Miss Cleo makes these claims doesn't she?) was not necessarily something I considered worth remembering at present. However, I mustered all my courage and pushed on past the first page. I'm glad I did as Cassidy does a masterful job of highlighting the follies and tragedies of this short-lived era. Cassidy draws many historical comparisons into his support for the development of the Net "Bubble" and offers fresh insight into some of the orchestrated(?) events occurring behind the scenes as many first-time investors waited for the next merger announcement (do you still watch CNBC with your morning coffee?). His historical elocution takes the reader to the manias of the past supporting his hypothesization that the Net debacle was waiting in the wings for the unsuspecting investing public. He takes us back to the first mechanical computer in 1931 and works his way forward offering layman explanations for many Net buzzwords, definitions as solid as any Internet Dictionary. Similarly, Cassidy is very thorough in his review of the background of many of the early and prime Net players including, in many cases, information on their childhood, eduction, early careers (although many here were in their early careers when the Bubble burst), and what brought them to the forefront of this incredible story. Cassidy focuses much of his energy, research and rhetoric on the happenings behind the scenes. He spoke to me when he began enumerating the obscure ways in which the Fed, Wall Street, VCs and promoters continued to stoke the Net fire even while it was primed to implode. He hits the nail on the head when he writes that VCs {and others} were using companies to create stocks instead of the fundamental methodology of using the stock market to raise capital to build companies. This point, among others, is critically poignant. Much to my appreciation, Cassidy extolls mightily the role played by Alan Greenspan in this comedy. Many believe Greenspan to be the culprit who burst the Bubble with his monotonous albeit eviscerating interest rate hikes and comments like "irrational exuberance." Cassidy leans in this direction yet I believe his position to be a personal conviction rather than a technical indictment. (In my opinion, Cassidy relates this information in relatively non-biased terms.) Self-dealing and greed were the culprits here not one individual. Overall, an enjoyable read although, as I mentioned earlier, the wounds are still a bit fresh to be rubbing salt in them (thus...4 stars). This will be a wonderful history book in 20 years or should I say, self-help book...."How Not to Invest Your Money." Pick it up; its worth the read.
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.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating read
Review: As someone who spent most of the 1990s in junior high and high school, this book was a fascinating entree into the "irrational exhuberance" of the 1990s dot.com era, when any business remotely related to the internet could go public for millions (if not billions) of dollars, even with steady losses and without a solid business plan. It was amazing to me to read about the number of investors who would buy stock in companies that hadn't proven anything, but simply had a website and believed they could tap into a certain percentage of an already- existing market. This book gives you an understanding of how AOL, a brand new company with much lower annual profits, could essentially acquire Time Warner, a larger company that had shown the test of time. More than that, the book shows you how investors - in fact, all of America - were overtaken by greed, irrationality, and a pack mentality that was ultimately detrimental. I wasn't mature enough during the 90s to really understand what was going on, and so I'm glad I read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good Warning on never wasting your money on Dot.Com's agaim.
Review: Well the book breaks it down to here was this quick and easy way to make money quick and Dot.Com stocks became way more then their real worth. Too much money investments,too many web-sites run by geeks who have no business sense, and little brain power led to the demise of this business trend just as fast as it began. Today the Internet is largly used by geeks who have no life and no class either.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Stories of Our Times.
Review: I am a bit mystified by the fellow's remarks (as I am often mystified by Amazon reviewers) who says that there is little here that is new to a reader who kept abreast of the internet explosion (and subsequent implosion) in the New York Times, Forbes, and Wired. First of all, would he rather have had author John Cassidy make up some new facts to embellish an already incredible story? Or is he simply unable to see what a masterful synthesis of information his book is -- not to mention an insightful and cogent analysis of exactly what happened during the "Technological Gold Rush" of the New Millenium? Or does he think it might be better for the average reader to wade through more than a decades' pile of Forbes, New York Times, and Wired periodicals rather than read this book? (Actually, anyone who can read through a copy of Wired once should be commended!)
Anyway, the story that Cassidy tells may not be an ennobling one, but it is certainly an astonishing and entertaining one, filled with hubris, greed, hype, charlatanism -- along with imagination, drama, and hope, too. Here from p. 314 is what might be considered its thesis:
"In retrospect, the period from 1989 to 2001 looks like an historic aberration, an extended time-out, during which the normal conditions of human conflict and international rivalry were temporarily suspended (for most people living in the West, at least). In this vacuum, technological utopianism and several other varieties of mushy thinking flourished."
At any rate, I strongly suspect that people will be reading this book fifty years from now in order to get a contemporary account of what happened.
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