A lost decade for stocks in Paris. In the past ten years, the CAC 40 has gone through five years of crisis. The toll was heavy: while September 4, 2000, the benchmark index of the Paris stock touched its record high, rating it at 6944.77 points at the meeting, boosted by a phenomenal Internet bubble, he moves painfully about the 3600 points TODAY 'hui.

If the current situation is rather gloomy, the atmosphere, in the late 1990s, was euphoric to say the least. The tech bubble that began in 1995 with the IPO of Netscape – sensational – escalated beyond reason with the explosive growth of telecommunications (France Telecom was by far the largest accumulation of ACC 40) and the phenomenon of start-ups. The world has welcomed the Internet as a revolution that would change the world, characterized by prosperity, easy money and speculation.The shares were outbid unconnected with the reality of companies' accounts.

When the time has come to the realization, the descent into hell has begun. On March 13, 2000 in New York, the Nasdaq index of technology stocks at the time (eBay, Yahoo, AOL …) suddenly picks up and puts an end to five years of consecutive increase. The European market will suffer a few months later and will suffer the same mass layoffs.