After 1992 the booming of the US stock market, in reference to which Alan Greenspan coined the memorable phrase “irrational exuberance”, eventually merged into the dot-com boom / dot-com bubble (2000 – 2001).

GATT update and creation of the World Trade Organization and other global economic institutions, but opposition by anti-globalization activists showed up in nearly every GATT summit, like the violent street demonstrations in Seattle in December 1999.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which phases out trade barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada is signed into law by U.S. President Bill Clinton.