People from all walks of life were caught in the whirlwind frenzy of breathing the dot-com rarefied air, directly or indirectly. In this frenzy, dot-com companies sprouted like there was no tomorrow, and viability and profitability were thrown, like caution, to the winds. Financial services, particularly the brokerage industry, saw the most dynamic shifts. Brokers thought they were going to be disintermediated, and for good reason. As with anything else, when one eats too much too soon, there comes a time for pain and payment for that splurging.
Indigestion knows no bounds.
Note the Web has fostered a lot of innovation, new ideas and new thinking. This type of invigoration is always needed and necessary. However, it is not the panacea. A definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. Markets are already foretelling where consumer sentiments lie.