A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market Quotes

“The primary indication of trouble was the developing glut in the telecommunications industry. Several commentators have observed that the industry’s trajectory over the last decade resembled that of the railroad industry after the Civil War. The opening of the West, governmental inducements, and new technology led the railroads to build thousands of miles of unneeded track. They borrowed heavily, each company attempting to be the dominant player; their revenue couldn’t keep pace with the rising debt; and the resulting collapse brought on an economic depression in 1873. Substitute fiber-optic cable for railroad tracks, the opening of global markets for the opening of the West, the Internet for the intercontinental railroad network, and governmental inducements for governmental inducements, and there you have it. Millions of miles of unused fiber-optic cable costing billions of dollars were laid to capture the insufficiently burgeoning demand for online music and pet stores. In a nutshell: Debts increased, competition grew keener, revenue declined, and bankruptcies loomed. Happily, however, no depression, at least as of this writing.”
― John Allen Paulos, A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market