The first journalist to herald the New Economy of the 1990s now predicts a stunning, sharp downturn: why it will happen, when it's coming, and what will happen afterward. The economist most renowned for predicting the New Economy of the 1990s now returns - just as books like The Long Boom and Dow 36,000 are turning the idea of perpetual prosperity into conventional wisdom - to say that the dominating economic event of the next few years is likely to be a deep recession, perhaps even a depression. Michael J. Mandel begins The Coming Internet Depression by explaining why just such a depression is not only possible but increasingly likely. His explanation is based in a comparison of the present period with the 1920s: both saw tremendous growth in GDP that was largely centered on the hypergrowth of a single industry - automobiles in the 1920s, information technology today. When this hypergrowth reverts to a normal growth pattern, as the automobile industry did in 1929, the resulting overcapacity will slow down the entire economy.