The 1990s Business and the Economy: Headline Makers

Jeff Bezos (1964–) Jeff Bezos had a vision that the Internet would revolutionize commerce. And he had one simple ambition: to own and operate the biggest store on Earth. To that end, on July 16, 1995, Bezos launched Amazon.com, the world's largest online bookstore. Within a few years, the Web site began offering music CDs, videos, toys, tools, and electronics, among other items. Although the company lost money every year it operated during the 1990s, the number of customers visiting the company's site increased yearly. In 1999, Amazon had sales approaching $1 billion.

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Ken Chenault (1951–) Ken Chenault became senior card executive of American Express, the credit card company, in 1991. He quickly led a cost-cutting overhaul of the company, and in 1995 was promoted to vice chairman. Finally, in late 1999, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of American Express, Harvey Golub, announced Chenault would become the company's new CEO by 2001. Although he was not the first African American to be named a CEO, he was the first to control a global financial services company.

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Bill Gates (1955–) Bill Gates led the Microsoft Corporation as it grew rapidly through the 1980s and 1990s to become the wealthiest company and the tenth-largest economic entity in the world. As of 1999, the computer software giant had a market value of $546 billion. At the same time, Gates had amassed personal wealth of $87.5 billion. He also started philanthropic foundations to support charitable measures in global public health and education. In the late 1990s, the federal government took Microsoft to court, claiming the company was a monopoly and needed to be divided into several small companies to comply with federal antitrust laws.

Alan Greenspan (1926–) Alan Greenspan served throughout the 1990s as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which sets interest rates, controls the money supply, and oversees the economic health of the country. Although some business leaders thought his tight monetary policies kept business profits down, others praised his handling of interest rates that helped stabilize the economy. Toward the end of the decade, Greenspan proved more willing to allow the economy to grow without raising interest rates to stem inflation (the continuing rise in the general price of goods because of an overabundance of available money).