These ghastly results prove the New Economy stock bubble has popped. One would think that 12 months of continual hammering would change peoples' minds. I've been looking around for reasons why people may be holding on to their belief in these stocks despite the bitter lessons of reality. During the Second World War, there were various remote islands in the Pacific occupied by primitive tribes. One can imagine some of these tribesmen sitting in a hut made of sticks and palm leaves trying to open a coconut with a piece of sharp rock when all of the sudden a ship appears and a battalion of U.S. Navy Seabees comes on shore and starts clearing the jungle with incredibly large, noisy, powerful machines.
Life is great.
Everyone is enjoying their new wealth and well being. Then, all of the sudden, the planes stop coming and all of the terrific cargo that the natives had enjoyed disappears as mysteriously as it came. During the war they saw airplanes with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect.