Larry Kramer, the ceo of CBS marketwatch, makes a telling state-ment in this issue's Internet World Interview: "If... three years ago, instead of starting MarketWatch, I had started a magazine, I would be given a fair five years to get that thing profitable." The October 2000 issue of Red Herring also makes a telling statement, by way of a cover headline: "Jeff Bezos' Fantasy World." These two telling statements are intimately related. Why? Amazon (and many others) set the stage back around 1995 by helping to legitimize an astoundingly stupid business environment, one that promoted limitless spending, turned profitability into a non-issue, and pushed pie-in-the-sky dreaming as the only strategic initiative worth undertaking. Amazon gets some credit for helping to spawn a business fantasy land.
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