24 JULY 1999, page 22

City And Suburban

The bubble bursts in Boulder, Colorado, and BestBank turns out to be BustBank CHRISTOPHER FILDES W hen the history of the great finan- cial bubble of our time comes to be writ-......

Advantage Server

THE bright iridescent sphere now being wafted to market in London is called Freeserve. It gets its sheen from the Inter- net, is described as a provider, and was part of Dixons......

A Ponzi Scheme

NOT a hope. In the end the FDIC wrote to 350,000 cardholders to offer them a deal. If they would pay 50 cents in the dollar, it would tell the credit-rating agencies that they......

Spot The Bezzle

THEY may not worry as long as the world's biggest economy surges ahead and the values put upon assets like shares and companies and properties break every record. They should......

Plastic Confetti

BESTBANK was scattering credit cards like plastic confetti and growing its bal- ance sheet (to call it that) from $10 million to $348 million in four years. Such progress......