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Forecasting Search Forecasting ForecastingDot.Con: Greatest Story Ever Sold
Allen Lane Search Allen Lane by John Cassidy Search John Cassidy
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Amazon.co.uk Review
John Cassidy's Dot.con is the most sweeping and definitive assessment published thus far of the stock market mania that swept this country in the late 1990s. Cassidy, who covers economics and finance for The New Yorker finds many seeds for the boom: Vannerver Bush's "memex" machine, the "intellectual forerunner of the World Wide Web"; increasing popularity of 401K and IRAs, which introduced millions of Americans to the equity markets, giving rise to a "stock market culture"; and the attention and hype in the late 80s and early 90s surrounding the "information superhighway" promoted by the likes of Al Gore, Newt Gingrich and Nicolas Negroponte. When Netscape went public in 1995, the Internet-mania began a five-year run that was fueled in part by the media, the policies promoted by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, the rise of day trading and the deluge of IPOs brought to market by firms such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch and their analyst cheerleaders Mary Meeker and Henry Blodget. For anyone who got caught up in the mania and foundered in its eventual crash, Dot.con is a bittersweet trip down memory lane that Cassidy captures just perfectly. --Harry C Edwards
Customer Reviews:
What a con
Though undoubtedly less damaging to my bank balance than the dodgy stocks I bought during the Internet boom, the hype and praise heaped on this book sucked me into yet another foolish investment. Bland, unoriginal and largely sourced from other people's clips and quotes, the book ends up reading like a Bloomberg market report in which the reporter hasn't even bothered to get his own soundbites. Nevermind the glaring typos, inaccurate statements like Margaret Thatcher's downfall was caused by a the property bust (has John Cassidy never heard of the poll tax?) end up devaluing what little intellectual weight this book carried. To paraphrase the John Kenneth Galbraith quote that screams out from the front cover: "I can't warn you off it more strongly".
Con of a Dot.con book 
I'm not totally convinced by this book. Emily Bell's Observer review notes that much of this book is taken from secondary sources. There's nothing wrong in that - though a good number of the sources are fairly accessible and obvious. The value added comes from the way in which the theme of financial speculation and manias is used to structure the book's history of the "Internet bubble". Again the sources used are obvious, but it's a neat narrative trick. The book's other strength is that the narrative is wide ranging, although at times I felt that the breadth stretched my credulity, such as the material on William Gibson and cyperpunk. In the end though I found the book's almost circular reasoning on the bubble unsatisfying. In particular I remain unconvinced of the role that Cassidy attributes to the Fed and Alan Greenspan .
Competent but not without flaws
The first thing you'd say about this book is that, however clever the title, it's erroneous: this isn't the story of a "con" at all, it's the story of a speculative bubble.
The whole point is that no-one was "conned" by the hot air. As Cassidy mentions from the outset, the prospectuses all contained large print health warnings in prominent places: "THIS COMPANY HAS NEVER MADE ANY MONEY, MOST LIKELY NEVER WILL" - but the punters still bought and bought. There were many psychological and sociological factors at play, but deception was not one of them.
For all that, Dot Con is well researched, well written and entertaining into the bargain (my copy was the paperback second edition in which the typos & manifest errors spotted by keen Amazonians (none of which, in my view, was earth-shattering) had been corrected). Cassidy describes briefly and competently the history of the internet and the general financial environment of the last 50 years, and then takes you into the maelstrom of the bubble from 1995 to 2001, all of which he portrays in suitably stunned-mullet fashion. The new edition features a lengthy epilogue which surveys the wreckage and covers the subsequent inquiry into the practices of investment banking firms and their uneasy relationships with their research analysts, all of which is still very current.
While he doesn't really dwell on it, I think Cassidy would come out in favour of more market regulation and intervention: He's especially critical of the Fed's approach to monetary policy and the atmosphere on the street which led to the boom in the first place.
In some ways (though it's hardly fashionable to say so) the investment banking firms and fund managers were as much victims of this as anyone: while the roof is blowing off the market and the choice is to join in and make hay, or watch your competitors annexing large portions of your market share while you sit on your hands, it is a singular Wall Street firm indeed which chooses to sit the boom out.
In any event this is a thoughtful and well put together book and serves as a pretty good overview of some of the most remarkable times in the history of modern finance.
The fool, or the fool who follows him?
There's no doubt that the whole world took leave of its senses during the dot com bubble - a journey which this book captures with clarity and some objectivity. Cassidy's message seems to be it wasn't that unusual, and his historic parallels make sense. But it was also a lot of fun if you were there, and his perspective is mixed with longing, rather than loathing.
But after reading Dot Con, I was left feeling there were some big questions unanswered, like can we (or would we want to) stop it from happening again. There's also a need to add up the long term damage of this period, not just on companies but also individual investors who lost large sums from their pensions and private portfolios.
Isn't hindsight great? 
It was interesting to read another person's account of the situation, especially since I worked in the industry during the dot.com peak. The narrative style accurately captures the mounting frenzy that pervaded both the US and the UK and abundance of facts presented provides an extremely frustrating hindsight.
To my mind, this book is essential reading for anybody interested in the Internet sector, as well as anybody who wants to learn a little more about the "workings" of the stock market.
After reading the book it's clear to see why many investors have become extremely cautious over the past few years.
Listmania Lists:
Crooked CEOs and dodgy companies
Good Non-Fiction
Lose yourself ..............
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