Dot Com Boom and Bust

Before the end of 1999 a lot of computers were fixed. A lot of data that normally would be sent from one computer to another did not arrive with errors that had to be made up by work-arounds. A lot of data were of this nature. One person, not receiving a payment from another, arranged for it to be made later. Perhaps the most important fact, that few noticed was that a lot of companies bought in increasing numbers through 1999 new computers built to eliminate Y2K limitations. Indeed 1999 was a year for new computer sales that did not peak exactly at year end but one quarter after. At that point with computer sales increasing tremendously almost everybody thought that the dot com boom was going to last forever and for a few months after the March 2000 peak, the drop in computer sales was not large. It was dismissed as just "a little reversal". Thereafter the dot com bust followed the boom.

No one could say that the bust occurred when it did, in early 2000 when the successful resolution of the Y2K threat had raised the hopes of the IT industry. What is reasonable to say is that the dot com bust would probably have occurred later than it did, and possibly, though not likely, it might not have happened at all.