E-commerce fever has spread from the United States to Europe and Japan. New e-commerce companies are mushrooming everywhere and new issues are snapped up even if there is no prospect of profits for years. Young men and women with a bright e-commerce idea become millionaires overnight. The feverish demand for e-commerce shares seems to some observers to be another "South Sea Bubble." (In 1720, there was a mania of speculation in London when "the South Sea Company" proposed to take over three-fifths of the national debt. The company failed and many investors were ruined as a result).

I doubt if the situation today is comparable, but there are worrying aspects of the feverish speculation in high-technology stocks. It may well be, as some suggest, that perhaps 80 percent of the large number of new companies will never make a profit and will be forgotten in a matter of months.

The hype and mania for high-tech stocks are overdone, and those who put too much of their resources into them -- many of which are already absurdly expensive -- are likely to damage their wealth and the value of the funds, including the pension money they manage.