New Economy: The Party Is Over

"It was noon, when the streets of San Francisco south of Market should have been packed with dot-comers taking long, languorous lunches. But the clutches of three and four young high-tech professionals that once filled the sidewalks were gone, the restaurants that they frequented half empty. A lone panhandler begging for change at a street median had crossed out the 'www.i'm broke' he had used to appeal to his audience and scrawled, 'Anything helps - if you can.'"

Thanks to Joshuah Mello