THE BUBBLE AND THE BEAR

The Bubble and the Bear recounts the dramatic rise and fall in Nortel stock value and tracks its devastating effects on personal savings and investments in Canada. A brilliant analysis of Canada’s most damaging stock gamble.

A cautionary tale of stock market mania, drawing on interviews with Canadian investors who lost tens of thousands of dollars, Nortel employees, and the precious few analysts who foresaw the collapse of the stock.

The tech industry boom of the late 1990s led stock analysts to believe that Nortel and other telecommunications industry leaders were a sure thing, the stock that every Canadian should own. By the summer of 2000, Nortel had a market capitalization of almost $375 billion. Nortel figured prominently in the portfolios of most every pension fund in the country, as well as in many mutual funds and RRSPs, as investors were determined to ride the biggest wave on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE).

Hunter demystifies the tech industry and the bubble economy’s “irrational exuberance,” which took hold of the stock markets as tech companies rushed to build a global communications infrastructure. When Nortel began to dominate the TSE, it also caught the eye of U.S. analysts, driving the share price up further and making it an active contender on the New York Stock Exchange.

• Why did mutual funds and pension plans gamble so heavily on Nortel?
• Why were most analysts cheering from the sidelines, unprepared for the dramatic revenue shortfall announced in February 2001?
• How did Nortel get away with presenting earnings that made losses disappear?
• Is there any evidence of negligence or wrongdoing?

All these questions, and more, are answered in this account of Canada’s most costly stock gamble.