The end of the “naughties” is nigh, so I expect we will be inundated by articles about the last decade. Luckily, this one is pretty funny (in an ironic sort of way of course). Fortune magazine has an article listing the ten stupidest business moments of the decade.
I’ll list some of them here, but the actual article has more information (and images) and is definitely worth a read.
- Time Warner’s acquisition of AOL, which Ted Turner gushed was better than sex, but which prompted the largest-ever US corporate loss in history (over $100 billion down the drain).
- Alan Greenspan, warning (just after Bush took office) of the dangers of too little federal debt. Well, Bush sure fixed that problem!
- The bankruptcy of WorldCom, along with the jailing of its top executives.
- Two words: Windows Vista.
- The SEC ignoring warnings for nine years that Bernie Madoff was running the world’s large Ponzi scheme.
- The housing crash, including the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors calling housing-boom skeptics “chicken littles.”
