re looking for a good story of a different kind. Sometimes they are focusing on a technology that is beneficial to its users but not necessarily its investors. Usually The Great Telecom Meltdown they have only a cursory knowledge of a topic and lack the in-depth understand- ing that would make future failures more evident. And when something gets too much publicity, too many people want to buy in, forcing up the price of equities beyond sustainable levels. Fads are thus the worst investments; the price cannot help but fall once the excitement moves elsewhere. The great telecom meltdown was the result of many things. Most of all, it resulted from the madness of crowds. An industry that was facing great change provided many investment opportunities, both good and bad. The boom years of the late 1990s were a time of free-flowing capital, and the telecom industry was ready to absorb it. The problem was not competition, or reregulation, or too much technology. It was emotion, the inability to set aside excitement and think rationally when making investment decisions. It happened to tulips, it happened to telecom, and it will happen again, somewhere else. It always does. Endnotes "Citigroup Agrees to a Settlement Over WorldCom," New York Times, May 11, 2004. Ackman, D., "House Committees to Investigate Global Crossing," Forbes.com, March 13, 2002, forbes.com/2002/03/13/0313topnews.html Long, J., "Tricks of the Trade: Accounting for Swaps," , Phone Plus, September 2002, http://www.phoneplusmag.com/articles/291carrier2.html. Long, J., "Tricks of the Trade: Accounting for Swaps," Phone Plus, September 2002, http://www.phoneplusmag.com/articles/291carrier2.html List of Acronyms first-generation second-generation third-generation 3d Generation Partnership Project American Bell Inc. automatic call distribution Arthur D. Little Inc. Add-on Data Module asymmetric digital subscriber line AMI/ZCS alternate mark inversion, zero code suppression Advanced Mobile Telephone Service Advanced Networks and Solutions American National St