Last month the stock market  was a raging bull across the board, with day traders everywhere holding on for dear life in the hope that they?d end up somewhere a good deal richer than wherever they started out. Uh-oh. Last week, on news of moves to control inflation in the US, that bull market morphed seamlessly into a bear - one which seemed set to gorge the huge amateur trader community. At the dead centre of the gore-fest was the Nasdaq, reeling from its first decline of more than 20 percent since 1998, and only the ninth since it opened for trading in 1971. The index lost over 1,000 points, more than 34 percent from its record high set March 10 - Wall Street’s technical definition of a bear market. As everyone must know by now, Internet consumer stocks, b-to-b stocks and infrastructure also fell very hard. But the bubble, it now seems, is not set to burst - yet. One analyst has memorably compared the state of the high-tech economy at the moment as a boiling broth, just full of bubbles and waiting to boil over. Felix Stalder, writing in Nettime, comments that the latest change may be linked to a growing understanding that the Internet does not represent a privileged social space in which the economic laws of gravity do not apply.What seems certain is that Net companies are looking to get a real-world footing following their tumble. The Industy Standard reports that several VC firms with online-retail investments have knocked on Wall Street’s doors seeking advice about consolidating their e-commerce holdings and fusing them with real-world interests.  ?Every firm that has more than two niche retail plays is considering these moves,’ a source said. ‘We’re telling them they have no chance of going public, and they are looking for brick-and-mortar partners.‘Could this be the beginnings of the kind of correction the market seems to require? Putting a ?bottom line? of profit making bricks-and-mortar companies to the blue sky predictions of the e-commerce upstarts could help greatly. With established businesses underwriting their losses instead of gung-ho VCs, such companies will have to face facts and come back to investors with more reasonable business plans ? on which the market can make more informed decisions.