The Tech bubble (also referred to as the Internet bubble, Dot-com bubble or IT bubble) was a worldwide overleveraging of stocks driven by the boom of internet and computer-based technology and commerce in the 1990's and early 2000's. The collapse of the bubble, which began with the decline of the American stock market in December 2001, caused a two-year recession in the United States while triggering far more catastrophic reactions in overseas markets. The collapse of the American tech bubble is widely attributed to triggering the 2002 Asian financial crisis and the 2002-07 French economic turmoil, as well as other lesser affects in South American and African markets and in countries belonging to the United States' general sphere of economic influence. Much like land-grabs and overspeculat