This is pretty entertaining/revealing. Fortune has a list of the dumbest moves in business for 2009. There’ve been a lot of them, and the year’s only half-over.
Here’s my take on some of the lowlights:
The SEC bars Bernie Madoff from trading securities, in mid-June. Yes, that means two weeks ago.
The stress tests. We were all so relieved to hear, in May, that the banks will be fine under adverse conditions. Adverse being 8.9% unemployment. We’re at 9.4% now.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geither tells a Chinese audience their investments in the US are very safe. The audience burst out laughing.
Apple offers a game called Baby Shaker — “See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down,” the instructions read.
President Obama makes a big deal out of asking agencies to cut a total of $100 million from their budgets. That would reduce the projected deficit by .005%.
British Airways offers an “unpaid work option”. Yes, that means, “do you mind working for free for a little while?”
Tropicana changes its packaging and gets swamped by angry customers. Apparently, the new design (on the right) reminded people too much of generic orange juice. I don’t know. I just have a thing for branding horror stories:
Stories You Might Like
We’re here to help you navigate this changed world and economy.
Our mission at Marketplace is to raise the economic intelligence of the country. It’s a tough task, but it’s never been more important.
In the past year, we’ve seen record unemployment, stimulus bills, and reddit users influencing the stock market. Marketplace helps you understand it all, will fact-based, approachable, and unbiased reporting.
