Every public company has a permit to print money. We call their money "stock." The public company's job is to convince investors that their stock is worth more than investor's money. When you succeed, your share price is strong. When you fail, your share price collapses. Eventually, your company will fail.

Stock, like money, suffers from inflation. The objection to paper money is ability of Government to expand its supply. When a Government inflates its currency, it risks economic upheaval. National financial instability leads to political unrest. President Suharto of Indonesia is an example of risks politicians run with inflation.

Public companies run same inflation risk. One reason Canadian Stock Markets lack credibility is that they allow listed company insiders to inflate issued stock and dump it. I disagree with SEC decision to reduce holding period for insider stock to one year. The inflated shares hit market like a tidal wave. When U. S. Government inflates currency, it takes about eighteen months for American people to see higher prices. When a public company issues more stock, it often takes a few days for stock to depress company's share price. At best, it takes a year for company's shareholders to pay price for stock inflation.

A public company's share price relies on perception, not fundamentals. Investors buy sizzle and not steak. It's reason stock promotion works. Perception can be manipulated.

Investors are lemmings. In 16th Century, they invested in tulips. In 1970's, it was gold mines. Until recently, it's been Internet. The cliff lemmings rush over is fundamentals. Most investors don't believe axiom that a business that isn't making money can't survive.

Tulip Mania, Mining Mania or Dot Com Mania follows same road to investor loss. There's an event that catches media's interest. In case of Mining Mania, it was collapse of Bretton Woods Agreement in 1972. France forced United States to float gold price against dollar. This created a platoon of "gold bug" gurus. The profit wasn't in telling lemmings that gold price was going up. The gurus made their money telling investors to buy gold mining stocks. The gurus got their stock free for promoting mining company and sold into buying they created. Mining stock centers like Vancouver, Denver and Salt Lake City boomed.

It doesn't benefit U. S. economy, nor any Western Government, to allow gold to appear safer than U. S. Dollar. After 1980, Western Governments moved to undermine gold [http://www.metropolecafe.com] as an alternative to paper currencies. The declining gold price ended Mining Mania.

The gold bug gurus mining argument was illogical. They argued that investors should not trust U. S. Dollar because it was a worthless paper (fiat) currency. However, investors should trust worthless paper stock certificates because they represented potential to produce gold.

Gold mining sank on three realities. The gold price never moved high enough to offset post World War II inflation. The Environmental Movement imposed massive additional costs on mining, especially in United States. Most profitable gold deposits had been mined before 1972. Without prospect of profit, potential of gold in ground was worthless. Mining Mania ended with loss of billions of investor dollars.

The creation of Internet is one of major technological events of 20th Century. It's empowered individual and contributed to fall of Soviet Union. In next Century, computer literacy will determine social class and widen gulf between between wealthy and developing countries. Keep in mind that expanding world population means increased demand for finite resources. The Net doesn't produce food, shelter or clothing. But, media focus on Net is justified.