Buy, Lie, and Sell High: How Investors Lost Out on Enron and the Internet Bubble

Talking Points

There were several players other than venture firms, investment banks and mutual funds that contributed to the bubble. Accountants permitted Internet firms to engage in creative accounting that inflated sales. The media hyped the bubble almost without reservation. The Fed not only did almost nothing to prevent the bubble—other than a timely warning by Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, which was not followed by action—but provided the credit which made it possible.