E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: New Economy - The End or Just the Beginning?
Posted by: ECT News 2001-05-16 19:50:30

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Pick up virtually any major media publication
covering the dot-com shakeout
of the past year and you're likely to come across
a slight variation on the
following theme: "the New Economy was a bust."

But was the New Economy really a complete hoax? Many economists actually
consider e-commerce to be only a small portion of what the media
collectively calls the New Economy. And despite the media's Chicken Little
cries that the sky is falling, these experts say that the New Economy is alive and
well.

Re: New Economy - The End or Just the Beginning?
Posted by: Johnson Louis 2001-05-17 10:24:14 In reply to: ECT News

Maybe people just weren't properly characterizing the New Economy before -- very few natural or manmade phenomena just skyrocket higher and higher without any retrenching or retreats. The New Economy is just like any other process -- it has its fits and starts, its ups and downs, but in the long run things have changed.

People who didn't think downturns were possible were living in dreamland -- and it will happen again the next time there is a big economic boom. Collective amnesia.

Re: New Economy - The End or Just the Beginning?
Posted by: Anshul Verma 2001-05-17 08:28:26 In reply to: ECT News

It is highly absurd to equate the fall of dot-coms to new economy. In fact it is arbitrary to draw comparison between old and new economy. The new economy's objective is to improve old business processes by adding value and make them more efficient. And this is achieved by using the Internet as an enabler which could be termed as the third industrial revolution. It will take its own time & toll before it takes its deserved position in business and domestic life. The netpreneurs, who will manage to keep their ventures alive till the time the Internet is fully accepted, will emerge as winners.

Re: New Economy - The End or Just the Beginning?
Posted by: Joe LaGuardia 2001-05-17 06:47:10 In reply to: ECT News

Of course, if you change the definition of New Economy to accommodate your position, you'll be always right!

The New Economy concept was based on the assumption that the widespread adoption of technology in companies and business processes would mean such an increase in productivity that it would create an scenario in which it would be possible to have unlimited growth without inflation. Thus, in theory, the business cycle was put to sleep.

It's impossible to argue against the fact that the role of technology in the economy is playing a significant role; but tecnology is just a medium, a tool, and a tool (and an extremely important one, at that) does not a new system make. So, it's the same Old Economy, but with different 'weapons', if you will.

Therefore, the concept of 'New Economy' has, in itself, proved absolutely wrong; it has failed. We are unfortunately seeing that the business cycle is far from dead.

Does this mean that the impact of technology in the Old Economy has failed? Absolutely not. It brings, in fact, all the elements of the new economy as described by Levy and Atkinson (dynamic global markets characterized by flexible, digitized production -- where risk, innovation, being first-to-market, and forging strategic alliances rule the day). Significant traits for which technology should be credited (although I'm not sure if I totally agree with some of them, especially after seeing what happened to some companies who were first-to-market).

But these factors alone do not define a New Economy: we're still fundamentally based in the same rules as always, and profit matters (at least, both Levy and Atkinson concede that...).

Re: New Economy - The End or Just the Beginning?
Posted by: Sheila Washin 2001-05-16 21:59:34 In reply to: ECT News

The new economy has just begun. The last two decades of the century just passed, ushered in the sea-change that is the new economy. Dot-Coms were just the plume that adorned the first wave of new businesses that fed its central appetite - the Internet. The Dot-Coms were inevitable. They were like Ford's Model-T that led the last century into automation. They are the risk takers that grab for the gold, or is it the brass ring, and went for broke. Toss in the naural human proclivity for "irrational excuberance" and touches of greed and what do you have? A crash of the early racers. Now, the reality, the finish line is still the 26+ miles of a marathon. It is time to regroup catch the next breath, find your mark, get ready Go! The Internet is here to stay at least for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, give the Dot-Coms a thumbs up. They have paid their dues