The run-up in stock prices at the end of the nineties was the largest financial bubble in the history of the world, creating more than $7 trillion in bubble wealth. Yet, it went largely undetected by most of the nation's leading economic and financial analysts. Instead of focusing on the inevitable collapse of this massive bubble, many of the nation's leading economists were focused on distant and relatively minor problems, such as the projected shortfall in the Social Security trust fund. Dissenting voices were almost completely absent from economic reporting during this period.

Government forecasters, such as those at the Congressional Budget Office and the Social Security Administration, made projections that implicitly assumed that the bubble would continue to expand indefinitely. And financial analysts, including those who controlled funds with tens of billions of assets, invested as though the bubble did not exist. In spite of this incredible record of failure, the vast majority of the "experts" have continued in their same positions and are still relied upon as authorities on the economy and financial markets.