what kind of decade was it well in
January 2000 al essentially bought Time
Warner in a merger that valued the
combined firm at two hundred billion
dollars by December 2009 Time Warner
sold AOL to the public markets in a
three billion dollar spin-off yeah
that’s the kind of decade it was in
business the 2000 started with the bang
that wasn’t the y2k blow the worry that
computers would get confused as 1999
turned to 2000 and think it was in fact
1900 never materialized
what did blow up was the Nasdaq after
peaking in March at over 5,000 points
the technology heavy index crashed back
to less than 2000 in a matter of months
evaporating billions in investor wealth
nevertheless technology sure was front
and center in 2001 Larry Sanger and
Jimbo Wales launched Wikipedia an
ambitious open sourcing cyclopædia
project that allowed anyone anywhere to
update any page at any time although
that year Apple launched the iPod
ensuring their domination and digital
music through the end of the decade
the carnage of the stock market meltdown
was exasperated through a series of
high-profile bankruptcies some due to
fraud others to incompetence telco giant
worldcom filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy
on July 11th the largest such filing in
US history Arthur Andersen came crashing
down – as did Enron I absolutely
unequivocally thought the company was in
good shape well it’s hard to believe
2004 saw more of us reaching our
destinations with GPS or Global
Positioning System becoming widely
available for personal use also taking
off in 2004 was Google whose IPO
propelled the company to great heights
today the company trades places with
Apple as one of the most valuable tech
companies around and it trails Microsoft
as the most valuable tech company period
and while you now spend all your time on
Facebook it’s worth noting that Mark
Zuckerberg social utility was only
founded in 2004 when he was a student at
Harvard University 2005 saw the launch
of YouTube by Steve Chen Chad Hurley and
Jay we’d carry a mere 18 months later in
October 2006 Google bought YouTube for
1.65 billion 2006 saw the launch of
Twitter a company that would finish the
2000s as the it company in technology if
you can call Twitter technology that is
in 2007 of course Apple launched the
Jesus phone I mean iPhone and set out to
revolutionize the phone industry the way
it did with music fueled on cheap credit
2008 saw the decade-long housing boom
come crashing down to a halt banks made
risky bets on mortgage-backed securities
and lost out big by September 2008 after
Bear Stearns collapsed Lehman Brothers
shut down – triggering a tornado of
terror amongst financial executives and
government leaders before long US
Treasury secretary Hank Paulson
announced the Troubled Asset Relief
Program or tarp at a tremendous cost one
of the major benefactors of the tarp
program was General Motors which filed
for bankruptcy in the summer of onine
and is now predominantly owned by the US
and Canadian governments 2009 also saw
the largest Ponzi scheme ever when
Bernie Madoff pled guilty to 11
felonies and admitted to defrauding his
investors of over 65 billion dollars
over a span of 20 years Larry what do
you think Bernie Madoff life is going to
be like in prison as the decade of
financial turmoil finally came to an end
the only thing that’s certain is that
nothing certain anymore
January 2000 al essentially bought Time
Warner in a merger that valued the
combined firm at two hundred billion
dollars by December 2009 Time Warner
sold AOL to the public markets in a
three billion dollar spin-off yeah
that’s the kind of decade it was in
business the 2000 started with the bang
that wasn’t the y2k blow the worry that
computers would get confused as 1999
turned to 2000 and think it was in fact
1900 never materialized
what did blow up was the Nasdaq after
peaking in March at over 5,000 points
the technology heavy index crashed back
to less than 2000 in a matter of months
evaporating billions in investor wealth
nevertheless technology sure was front
and center in 2001 Larry Sanger and
Jimbo Wales launched Wikipedia an
ambitious open sourcing cyclopædia
project that allowed anyone anywhere to
update any page at any time although
that year Apple launched the iPod
ensuring their domination and digital
music through the end of the decade
the carnage of the stock market meltdown
was exasperated through a series of
high-profile bankruptcies some due to
fraud others to incompetence telco giant
worldcom filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy
on July 11th the largest such filing in
US history Arthur Andersen came crashing
down – as did Enron I absolutely
unequivocally thought the company was in
good shape well it’s hard to believe
2004 saw more of us reaching our
destinations with GPS or Global
Positioning System becoming widely
available for personal use also taking
off in 2004 was Google whose IPO
propelled the company to great heights
today the company trades places with
Apple as one of the most valuable tech
companies around and it trails Microsoft
as the most valuable tech company period
and while you now spend all your time on
Facebook it’s worth noting that Mark
Zuckerberg social utility was only
founded in 2004 when he was a student at
Harvard University 2005 saw the launch
of YouTube by Steve Chen Chad Hurley and
Jay we’d carry a mere 18 months later in
October 2006 Google bought YouTube for
1.65 billion 2006 saw the launch of
Twitter a company that would finish the
2000s as the it company in technology if
you can call Twitter technology that is
in 2007 of course Apple launched the
Jesus phone I mean iPhone and set out to
revolutionize the phone industry the way
it did with music fueled on cheap credit
2008 saw the decade-long housing boom
come crashing down to a halt banks made
risky bets on mortgage-backed securities
and lost out big by September 2008 after
Bear Stearns collapsed Lehman Brothers
shut down – triggering a tornado of
terror amongst financial executives and
government leaders before long US
Treasury secretary Hank Paulson
announced the Troubled Asset Relief
Program or tarp at a tremendous cost one
of the major benefactors of the tarp
program was General Motors which filed
for bankruptcy in the summer of onine
and is now predominantly owned by the US
and Canadian governments 2009 also saw
the largest Ponzi scheme ever when
Bernie Madoff pled guilty to 11
felonies and admitted to defrauding his
investors of over 65 billion dollars
over a span of 20 years Larry what do
you think Bernie Madoff life is going to
be like in prison as the decade of
financial turmoil finally came to an end
the only thing that’s certain is that
nothing certain anymore
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