As the century closed, the world became smaller. The public rapidly gained access to new and
dramatically faster communication technologies. Entrepreneurs, able to draw on unprecedented scale
economies, built vast empires. Great fortunes were made. The government demanded that these
powerful new monopolists be held accountable under antitrust law. Every day brought forth new
technological advances to which the old business models seemed no longer to apply. Yet, somehow, the
basic laws of economics asserted themselves. Those who mastered these laws survived in the new
environment. Those who did not, failed.