I penned an op ed for the Times which runs today. They’ve chose to run it outside of Times Select, so you can get it without paying, but registration is required. From it:
It sure feels like a bubble, doesn’t it? Let’s tick off the signs: a red-hot market for Internet stocks (Google, for example, has more than quadrupled since it went public in 2004); fawning articles celebrating entrepreneurs; a glut of venture capitalists elbowing one another to invest in companies with no plans on how to make money past some hand waving about “advertising” and plenty of vague claims about how their technology will “change the world.”
The Internet is exciting again, and once again folks are rushing in. In some categories – like search or social networking, for example – there are scores of start-ups vying for pretty much the same market, and it’s certain that, just like last time, most of them will fail.
But regardless of all this déjà vu, we are not in a bubble.
Update: In fact, all outside contributors (like me) are not part of Times Select, my editor tells me…