Re: 'Looking a 1997, you're in the middle of a market that somehow thought that Pets.com warranted a market capitalization in the many billions. Intel was caught up in (and smacked down by) the dot-com bust."
I am sorry, that is not true. You are confusing 1999 and 2000 with 1997. Notice that I did not intentionally pick a $60/$70 price to compare with todays price. Most of 1998 was quite a terrible year for Intel stock (by its standard then).
You forget that Intel's earning in 2007 (in Q3) was $2B on a $6B/quarter revenue, same as what it is today at $10B/quarter. Intel has simply now found a way to grow their profits and they market is paying accordingly.
Maui.