The Economist.
After what they are already calling Black Friday,
they are counting up the damage on Wall Street.
Back in the spring of 2000,
the .com boom turned to bust.
It sent the Dow and the Nasdaq plummeting.
It was the worst single-day point loss ever
for both exchanges.
Many critics blamed circular financing
for bursting the bubble.
What we learned in 2000 is that
you don't lend to customers who buy your goods.
They might default and your earnings get smashed.
Because in the .com era,
the companies that bought the goods
didn't have enough money to pay for them.
Instead, the companies that made the goods
ended up on the hook
because they provided what's known as vendor financing.
As AI spending grows larger and larger,