[Svexark]

In 1997, congress lowered the tax on capital gains making non-dividend-paying stocks cheaper than dividend-paying stocks. It made it very attractive to invest in companies that didn't pay dividends like tech company IPOs which were popular at the time because of the growth of computers and the internet. There was a boom of personal investing as average people were quitting their jobs to become day traders. Stocks were rising uncorrelated with business fundamentals but because of the speculation of them increasing even more in the future.

The "crash" happened when some large companies became too nervous with the overvaluation and put in large sell orders for their own stock. This caused everyone else to panic worried that the stocks they owned were worthless and that they would lose everything if they continued to hold onto them.

The bubble "burst" in 2003 when congress changed the tax laws so that capital gains was taxed at the same rate again.