The Cross-Section — Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

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TEE-ECO-CD-WIN-01-M-BK T-Shirt

Piece

The Cross-Section Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

$ 2,345.00

Description

Global Crossing filed for Chapter 11 on 28 January 2002 after laying fibre around the world and inflating revenue with capacity swaps between carriers; the cable is still working. The print is the cross-section of that cable.

A Author

Gary Winnick

B Subject

Tech Bubble

C Aesthetic

Diagram · Typographic

Exploration

Global Crossing did something that exists and still exists: it laid optical fibre along the ocean floor. That cable is real, it is there, and part of what you are reading passes through it.

What was inflated was the accounting. Two carriers sold each other capacity for similar amounts, in the same quarter, and each booked what it received as revenue and what it paid as long-term investment. No new money entered anywhere and both grew on paper.

Winnick sold his shares before the end and kept hundreds of millions. The company filed for Chapter 11 in January 2002 in the largest telecoms bankruptcy up to that point.

The cable did not go dark. Somebody else bought it for a fraction, and today it carries more traffic than ever.

The infrastructure outlived the company that paid for it. It usually does, and that is the part nobody counts.

Details