What we have here is a case of the foolish criticizing the blind. The Internet was never going to make the business cycle go away, and anyone who believed so deserved to lose all the money they had plowed into shares of hopeless dot-coms. And now that we are in an ever-so-slight downturn in the business cycle, those who say the Internet was all hype have obviously never used eBay or experienced one of the myriad forms of collaboration and communication that weren't possible even five years ago without the Internet.

When it comes to reading about the economy and your money, it pays not to believe the hype that you read in the press. Everyone has their own interest in mind, and the same person who's trashing tech stocks on CNBC has probably shorted the NASDAQ behind the scenes. What we have now is a small correction, and anyone who says otherwise either knows more than Alan Greenspan--who remains cautiously optimistic-- or has got a horse to sell you.

Alex F. Rubalcava '02 is a government concentrator in Eliot House. His column appears on alternate Mondays.