There is a plausible school of thought that says the President and Congress being wrapped up in the impeachment circus is what was largely responsible for the economic boom. And that if they really wanted to see the economy boom, the Congress should just go on a two-year recess.

Now that they're back in business, we are seeing pork and spending schemes flow freely from both parties, and howling idiocies like adding yet another entitlement to the crushing load we are already supporting.

BTW, Gary's post is true as well, although the Valley here is hardly the "smoking ruin" he says it is. A lot of the budget surpluses can be laid to the immense load of capital gains taxes that flowed in during the stock boom. Between 1993 and 2000, the percentage of income taxes from capital gains went from 6 to 12 percent of the total.

The whole "dot.com" thing reminds one of the Dutch tulip craze. Any boob who came up with an idea like ToiletPaper.com could get investment.

Unfortunately, we were trying to raise money for Rotary Rocket at this time--a long-term investment--and nobody wanted to look at something that didn't double their money in a month.

That being said, a number of dot.coms, or at least the ideas, came out the other end in pretty good shape. Amazon is still in business, and good ideas like Paypal worked. And although outfits like Webvan went belly-up, existing grocery outfits like Safeway and Nob Hill have done pretty well in the online grocery business around here.