Given the importance of venture capital to the New Economy boom of the 1990s, this could dampen the rise of innovations needed to fuel the next wave of growth. Certainly, it's no longer disputable that a pervasive tech slowdown is well under way. And computer prices are falling sharply as well. Add it all up, and there's plenty of reason for the Fed to worry. And corporate IT spending is being restrained by the slowing economy.
Demand is way down.
Skepticism about some of info-tech's bigger claims could also slow new orders. And doubts about online commerce coupled with the slowing economy spell trouble for the B2B software market. That line stopped working months ago. That has left many equipment and chip makers with much of the stuff they built in 2000. Motorola's Burgess figures that by and large, chip makers booked two years' worth of sales last year.