ABSTRACT
The stock market boom at the end of the twentieth century was quite extraordinary. The value of stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) increased by 20 percent between 1998 and 1999, the period when the market upswing was at its peak. America seemed to be consumed by the frenzied stock market. Stock ownership was said to have “become as common as the two-car garage.” Seventy-nine million individuals owned stock, an increase from 42 million in 1983. Eighty-five percent of that stock ownership consisted of mutual fund shares. The boom on the Nasdaq market was being fueled by companies providing Internet services, often with “dot-com” in their name. The boom in Internet stocks was said to have begun in August 1995 with an IPO by Netscape, which made a Web browser.
