Nasdaq Changed in Its Climb to 5,000 - NYTimes.com

An irrational exuberance reality check -- note that Oracle isn't in the article's then-and-now market cap chart because it moved from Nasdaq to NYSE since bubble 1.0; otherwise, it would be #4 on the Thursday market close chart

"The Nasdaq composite that peaked at 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000, in what turned out to be the height of the technology bubble, bears little resemblance to today’s Nasdaq index. Of the top 20 Nasdaq companies by market capitalization in 2000, only four — Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Intel and Qualcomm — remain in the top 20 today. Eight no longer exist as independent companies, most as a result of bankruptcy or acquisition, and several are shadows of their former selves. The current Nasdaq composite index has only about half as many companies as it did in 2000.

“Joseph Schumpeter was spot on when he said capitalism is all about creative destruction,” said Richard Sylla, an economics professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a specialist in the history of markets, referring to the Austrian-American economist who described the phenomenon in 1942 in “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.”"

Nasdaq Changed in Its Climb to 5,000 - NYTimes.com