—How do you view the current situation?

—It's no ordinary matter.

At the host's question, the expert, wearing a dark expression, spoke.

—The dot-com fever that began the year before last is showing signs of dying down. Even in the American venture cluster they call Silicon Valley, countless companies are shutting their doors, and it's said the investors who came flocking with money in hand stopped coming long ago. The local analysis is that the festival everyone thought would never end is coming to a close.

—Might this perhaps be a normalization process, a return to the original state of things?

—If you regard the past state as abnormal… you may be right, host. But the problem is that the state that continued for roughly two years came to feel normal.

—You mean that if people thought the festival was normal, they can't help but be greatly shocked at how things look once the festival ends.

—Precisely so. When everyone was caught up in the festival, that state may have looked normal, but once day breaks, they come to realize the reality.

The host put another question to the expert.

—Then let's turn the talk to our own market. Our stock market — how do you think it will go from here?

At the host's question, the expert wore a troubled expression.

—Predicting the future of the stock market is a truly difficult thing. And when it's showing large swings like now, prediction is more difficult still.

Having voiced the difficulty for a moment, the expert let out a short sigh and opened his mouth again.

—But if I venture a prediction anyway… A famous American investor once said this: when the tide goes out, you'll find out who's been swimming naked.

—What does that mean?

—It means that when money is flowing in like the rising tide, you can't tell which companies are good and which are bad, but after the money withdraws, you can see their bare faces. And…

The expert paused a moment, then shook his head as if in regret and said,

—Most of the companies…