Beyond The Bubble | Dot Con | FRONTLINE

In "Dot Con" the documentary, FRONTLINE tells the story of the Internet stock-market bubble -- and some of its most disturbing excesses -- through interviews with several prominent and influential inside players of the dotcom era: Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Wall Street analysts and investment bankers, the former chairman of the SEC, key litigators, and journalists who've covered the story for The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine.

For "Dot Con" the website, we decided to extend the story beyond the focus of the documentary and to find out what some of the most astute observers of the Internet and the "new economy" have to say about what happened during the late-1990s -- and what lies ahead. That is, to take in the bigger picture, to step back and try to assess the broader economic, cultural, and political context in which the Internet bubble took place.

From August of last year through this January, we conducted email interviews with economist Robert Shiller of Yale University, James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly, Michael Mandel of BusinessWeek, Thomas Frank of The Baffler and Harper's magazines, and Steven Johnson, co-founder of the pioneering online magazine FEED. We asked each of them to comment, at whatever length they chose, on the questions below. In some cases, we followed up with specific additional questions.

(To read the various responses to each question, click on the links below. To read the full interviews, click on the links in the right-hand column on this page.)


	The Internet was supposed to "democratize the market" and "level the playing field." But what role did the Internet itself, as a new communication medium, really play in driving the Internet bubble? Read the responses ...


	Economists will be debating the "new economy" (whether or not there really is, or was, such a thing) for years to come. But what role did all the talk about a "new economy" -- that is, the "new economy" rhetoric -- play in the Internet boom and bust? Read the responses ...


	What did the Internet bubble really cost, not just in economic terms but in social, political, even cultural terms? And what have we learned, or failed to learn, about the real value of the Internet as we go forward? Read the responses ...


	email interviews with...

	· James Fallows National correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and a former columnist for The Industry Standard, he has written extensively about technology, economics, and politics for more than two decades. · Thomas Frank Editor of The Baffler magazine and a contributing editor of Harper's, he is the author of One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy (2000). · Steven Johnson Co-founder and editor-in-chief of the online magazine FEED, he is the author of two critically acclaimed books on technology and society: Interface Culture (1997) and Emergence (2001). · Michael Mandel Chief economist at BusinessWeek, he is the author of The Internet Depression: The Boom, the Bust, and Beyond (2001). · Robert Shiller He is the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics at Yale University and the author of Irrational Exuberance (2000). The interviews were conducted via email by Wen Stephenson, managing editor of FRONTLINE's website, between August 2001 and January 2002.

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