Weltwirtschaftkrise und New-Economy-Crash: Parallelen und Unterschiede[Great Depression and New-Economy-Crash: analogies and differences]

When comparing the New Economy and the time before the Great Depression there are two obvious analogies. In the 1920s as in the 1990s there was an investment boom triggered through the use of new technologies and rapid technological development. In the 1920s, these were the electricity and the combustion engine, in the 1990s computer hardware, software and network technologies. This boom seemed to promise steadily rising corporate profits. The capital needs could be well covered ever the stock, as earnings expectations were high. Both decades had an acceleration of productivity growth, low unemployment and low inflation rates. The sharp fall of the stock was just like the previous stock market boom equally an indicator of both scenarios. In both cases a stock market bubble had formed. The real economic development after the stock market crash, however, differs fundamentally.