2000s The Shadow of September 11

WITH THE FIRST DECADE of the 21st century less than half over, there is no escape from the memory of September 11, 2001. But before that catastrophe, the tech boom had given way to a bust that infected the market and the whole economy. A cover in 2000 asked, "Wall Street: Is the Party Over?" By 2002 the question had changed to, "Wall Street: How Corrupt Is It?"

On a less momentous scale, Martha Stewart's empire was riding high, and so were giants such as Tyco and Enron--but stay tuned! At the personal level, one question was where jobs would come from--and whether workers could afford to retire. "I Can't Remember" announced a deep look into the mystery of Alzheimer's disease.

Americans continued to consume through ups and downs, but was the mass market an endangered species?