A piece in the Guardian retells the old story about how the big end of town came out winners when the dotcom boom went bust. The sympathy for “small investors” is a bit overdone. Anyone could see that the dotcoms were a bubble, and many said so as loudly as possible, including yours truly . Those who bought into it and didn’t get out in time deserved all they got (nothing). But as the market hits five-year lows, it’s difficult to see how, in this world of defined-contribution superannuation, anyone can avoid being taken to the cleaners by stock-market operators.