Back to the Future
The high-tech economy is on the ropes, so maybe it's time to get back to basics
BY PAT REGNIER
The old economy is coming back with a vengeance. For all the amazing, productivity-enhancing things the Internet can do, dirty industrial details like the price of oil and the quality of steel still matter. All in all, it's a good time to be in a business where the workers need to scrub their hands at the end of a hard day.
The bursting of the high-tech bubble will have consequences for nearly everybody in 2001. Consumers are feeling nervous again and corporations are finding that cash, once so plentiful in a booming stock market, is a scarcer commodity. Economic growth is slowing in many places in the world, with even some hints that a recession is on the way. For the first time in a long while, there's no money to be made just by riding the economic and market momentum. In the economy of 2001, it will be survival of the smartest.
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The Year Ahead
Politics
Business
Investing
- United States
- Latin America
- Europe
- Eastern Europe
- Japan
- Asia Pacific
Trends
- Fewer Marriages
- The German Exception
- Italy Awakes
- More Takeovers
- Auto Rout
- Luxury Goods Sale
- Euro Revival
- Oil Pressure
- Japan Opens
- Eastern Revival
- China Boom
Viewpoint: Pass the Buck
Technology
Arts & Media
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