New Economy

A buzzword describing new, high-growth industries that are on the cutting edge of technology and are the driving force of economic growth. The new economy is commonly believed to have started in the late 1990s, as high tech tools, such as the internet, and increasingly powerful computers, began penetrating the consumer and business marketplace.

The thought that a "new economy" had arrived was evident in the hysteria surrounding the tech-bubble of the late '90s and early 2000s. Without fully considering macroeconomic factors, investors and financial institutions bid up stock prices to unprecedented highs. Although the tech bubble has long since burst, the remaining firms have remained very innovative and at the forefront of technology.

Companies in the new economy are heavily involved in the internet and biotech industries, but the ripple effects of new technologies has spread out to all other industries as well.