The New Economy hasn't just changed business. But it still stumps those who should have some answers. Alan Greenspan himself can't seem to make up his mind on the subject. A bubble, if it lasts long enough, has real effects. Spend four and a half years hurling tens of billions of dollars at thousands of entrepreneurs intent on wreaking havoc with the economic and social order and you will leave a permanent mark, even if many of those billions wind up being wasted on fruitless ventures.
Experiences shape societies, just as they do people.
In the early 1990s, Generation X, with its vague antimarket sentiment which mistook sloth for moral superiority, was shaping up as one of the most annoying groups of young people in history. Then came the Internet Boom, which offered even alienated young people the chance to get really rich, really fast. In a short few years an entire generation of young, restless Americans became ideologically indistinguishable from their elders. Having given themselves over so completely to the coarser capitalistic lusts, they cannot go back. You can only sell your soul once.