acknowledgments

I would like to thank everybody who helped me to write Dot.con. At HarperCollins: David Hirshey, Jeff Kellogg, Cathy Hemming, Adrian Zackheim, Cindy Achar. At The New Yorker: David Remnick, Dorothy Wickenden, Pam McCarthy, Henry Finder, John Bennet, and, especially, Cressida Leyshon. At the Wylie Agency: Andrew Wylie and Jeffrey Posternak. Thanks also to: Katherine Zoepf, for checking facts and compiling the footnotes; Greg Kyle, at Pegasus Research, for compiling the figures in the appendix; Alice Rose, for inspiring the title. The material in this book is drawn from a combination of firsthand reporting, government economic statistics, SEC filings, corporate press releases, contemporary newspaper and magazine stories, research reports, academic periodicals, and books. Whenever practical, I have tried to indicate the relevant sources. All the opinions expressed are my own.

This book is dedicated to my parents, John and Julie Cassidy.