GLOBALIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS ★^1083The Internet, first developed as a high- speed military communications
network, was simplified and opened to commercial and individual use through
personal computers. The Internet expanded the flow of information and com-
munications more radically than any invention since the printing press. At a
time when the ownership of newspapers, television stations, and publishing
houses was becoming concentrated in the hands of a few giant media con-
glomerates, the fact that anyone with a computer could post his or her ideas
for worldwide circulation led “netizens” (“citizens” of the Internet) to hail the
advent of a new, democratic public sphere in cyberspace.
The Stock Market Boom and Bust
Economic growth and talk of a new economy sparked a frenzied boom in the
stock market that was reminiscent of the 1920s. Investors, large and small,
poured funds into stocks, spurred by the rise of discount and online firms that
advertised aggressively and charged lower fees than traditional brokers. By
2000, a majority of American households owned stocks directly or through
investment in mutual funds and pension and retirement accounts.
Investors were especially attracted to the new “dot coms”—companies that
conducted business via the Internet and seemed to symbolize the promise of
Two architects of the computer revolution, Steve Jobs (on the left), the head of Apple Com-
puter, and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, which makes the operating system used in most
of the world’s computers.
What forces drove the economic resurgence of the 1990s?