A lot of the book was consumed with drawing parallels between recent boom/bubble cycles and previous Gilded Age cycles in Spain, Holland, and England.

Damn. I read a book a year or two ago, Tulipomania, that documented the ridiculous rise and fall of tulip trading in 17th century Europe. Fascinating book.

Perhaps because I'm stupid, I didn't realize until just now that it was an allegory for the dot-com era. Oh, well.