Comments on: Talkback: Dumbest Moments in Business

By: Douglas - Rockville, MD

Douglas - Rockville, MD — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:13:44 +0000

The dumbest moment in history is when the USG represented ‘big business’ and not the people as it should have. As someone said, its ‘capitalism for the common man and socialism for the wealthy.’ The money would have been better spent by paying off every US tax paying citizens”bills than handing it over to banks and others who do not have to track how they use it.

By: Edward O'Connell, Ocean Ridge, Florida

Edward O'Connell, Ocean Ridge, Florida — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:12:02 +0000

I cannot believe that no one remembers Bank of America paying to the CFO of Countrywide 27.7 million dollars to retain his services. Of course B of A bought Merill Lynch for too much money. Why is the CEO, Ken Lewis, still in place. Does our governement or board of Directors do any work?

By: Bill W. Saratoga Springs,N.Y.

Bill W. Saratoga Springs,N.Y. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 07:32:25 +0000

Some of the biggest blunders in the Corp. World,were created by weakling boards of directors,who sat meekly by,
while rock star status c.e.o’s and
c.f.o.s bled their companies,and
shareholders dry.Where courage,and confrontation were needed to stop the bleeding,they were as dumb as ostriches with their heads in the sand.What an avoidable tragedy for all.

By: Bryan Ditman, Los Angeles, California

Bryan Ditman, Los Angeles, California — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:20:30 +0000

Electing Obama and his cadre of tax cheats let loose the mother of all pork pie Congresses. No the business and financial community has to deal with higher taxes, huge deficits, an incompetent Treasury Secretary, and a Congress that thinks they can simply tax their way to prosperity.They wouldn’t loan $30B to California, but they’ll hand it out to AIG for free.

By: Jesus sanchez Wichita Kansas

Jesus sanchez Wichita Kansas — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:53:47 +0000

The guys that bought the$ 999.00 apps for there Iphone have to be the dummest for the CENTURY. Buying an apps that costs more than there phone. Those rich folks don’t care about spending they probably never worked a day in there life. They depend on there rich pappis to just keep bringing in the money. But look at all those CEOs now

By: BW, Canton Ohio

BW, Canton Ohio — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:14:32 +0000

All good “dumb moments”! For me though, it has to be AIG taking their execs. & mgmt. to a posh resort for massages, dinners, and relaxation after they had bankrupted and were given bailout availability!

By: D. Lowell St. Paul, Mn

D. Lowell St. Paul, Mn — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:00:53 +0000

I’d like to say all of the above but the biggest scumbags are Gramm, Cox, Paulson and Greenspan. Maddof is in a different catagory. GVMNT aiding and abeting criminal activity is first.

By: Steve Ford, Las Vegas, NV

Steve Ford, Las Vegas, NV — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:00:59 +0000

Jerry Yang is an idiot. That was the, flat-out, stupidest business move in the last 50 years! Yahoo stockholders should sue Jerry Yang into bankruptcy.

Bailing out the corporate thieves responsible for the economic meltdown is probably the most regrettable government decision in at least the last hundred years. Writing a check for $700 Billion dollars in taxpayer money and handing it over with neither strings nor oversight amounts to more shameless abuse and thievery.

If the American people do not demand a full and total accounting for every penny, we deserve the mess that is certain to follow!

Allowing government officials, politicians and corporate criminals to loot and plunder billions of dollars without even the slightest hint of punishment, disdain or penalty creates a lethal environment where corruption and greed expands and becomes our inevitable undoing. — Steve Ford

By: John Thomas, Washington, DC

John Thomas, Washington, DC — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:52:46 +0000

When Secretary Paulson decried that the fundamental of the economy were strong. That was just prior to Bear Sterns implosion.

And, Our Lame Duck President backed that theory with vigor.

Can’t trust the government…

When you rely on spin nobody wins.

By: Mark B, St. Louis, MO

Mark B, St. Louis, MO — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:48:58 +0000

I’m confused why the Ballmer / Yahoo deal is spun to suggest Ballmer made a dumb move. It’s common in a hostile takeover to offer a premium, so shareholders will force the board to accept the offer. And to say Ballmer should have foreseen the future – Well, if he could do that, he wouldn’t need his day job, right?

I agree with the other people who said the dumb move was Jerry Yang not accepting the offer – But again, not because he couldn’t predict the future (shame on him!), but because it caused outrage amongst the shareholders (which was the intended result of Ballmer’s offer) and eventually cost Yang his job.

By: Alex Winter NYC, NY

Alex Winter NYC, NY — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:20:42 +0000

While I agree that it was stupid of the big 3 to send their CEO’s in private jets to beg for money, I find it incredibly ironic that Congress of all people is telling them they’re being irresponsible with money.

By: Dave, Goose Creek, SC

Dave, Goose Creek, SC — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:02:01 +0000

Great article on the 21 dumbest moves in busines. For me I think the dumbest move was the approval of the 700 billion dollar package to bail out these businesses that deserve to fail. As I mentioned in my previous postings we needed to let some of these big businesses go down in flames for others to realize that they need to straighten up and don’t depend on the government to bail them out. As we have seen (rumors of course…lol) not every business used their part of the bailout to turn around their business.

It seems to me by looking at these 21 mistakes it just takes lots of money to run a business, not much brain power!!

By: Mike, Elk Rapids, MI

Mike, Elk Rapids, MI — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:42:43 +0000

Having the big three drive a car to Washington was stupid. I would rather have them on a private airplane, with their management team planing and preparing for the future.

They wasted hours of valuable time tring to impress a group of Congressmen who fly on our tax payer money all the time. Including flying home at nights.

The dumb mistake was not the private airplanes, it was the drive.

By: Mike, Atlanta, GA

Mike, Atlanta, GA — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:04:33 +0000

My vote goes for “Yahoo turns down payday”. Jerry Yang proved he was dumber than dumb.

By: Bob, Wayne, PA

Bob, Wayne, PA — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:27:50 +0000

You missed the point on the oil speculators. I guess it didn’t occur to you that those doing the speculating were running for cover to try and survive these last 5 months? The run up and run down has nothing to do with real demand; only paper demand of people who can no long find the money to play with.

By: D Kelly, Habana, Australia

D Kelly, Habana, Australia — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:15:45 +0000

The dumbest moment in business was the Democrats under President Bull Clinton imposing the legislation which allowes people who had no ability to repay housing loans to take them out and thus start the sub prime mortgage crisis.If low income people need assistance it should be delivered by government in a transparent way not offloaded to private enterprise in a way that undermines the entire financial system

By: Double B, Lafayette, LA

Double B, Lafayette, LA — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:10:47 +0000

I guess the dumb and dumber never learn. Here is another dumb move. Today CNN reports that the Feds bail out GMAC Financial Services for a tune of $6 Billion dollars. Who ownes one of the largest sub-prime lenders? GMAC, that’s who. Ever heard of Ditech? This sub-prime lender lent 125% of the homes value putting many homeowners owing much more than what thier house was ever worth. Way to go Feds. $6 Billion awared to a company that owned a sub-prime mortgage company. The root of several problems.

By: Todd Oldham, Kapaa, HI

Todd Oldham, Kapaa, HI — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:04:36 +0000

Not one mention of AIG? Congress gives them $50 billion a week after the request, another $35 billion a few weeks later, and with no oversight! Congress and the media then proceed to publicly humiliate the Big Three for asking for $30 billion. The auto industry provides over 1 million jobs, versus AIG’s 50,000 or so. The auto industry made mistakes, most notably their fight against emissions and fuel economy, but to the best of my recollection they didn’t invest the majority of their assets in subprime mortgage securities. Regardless, as a source of funding for both AIG and the Big Three, I think I am entitled to shares of each.

By: Dr. John Neary Crestline, Ca

Dr. John Neary Crestline, Ca — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:34:48 +0000

this may not be the dumbest in business but it sure is in law enforcement. i’am so sick of seeing bernard madoff smiling in a baseball cap all over town. this crook stole 50 + billions of $$$$ , i’am sure that is more than what all the inmates in all our prisons have stolen in their lifetimes!!!! this crook should be wearing orange , he should look like a carrot. with so much steel wrapped around his body that two body would have a hard time holding him up. but o no, only in AMERICA can all of this crooks steal tons of money and be treated like KINGS!!!! just another wall street GENIUS $$$$$$$$

By: Casey, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Casey, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:20:39 +0000

It seems a lot of your “business” blunders are actually political blunders, or errors of understanding public perception. Real business blunders are those like … taking a mortgage out that you can never afford to pay, or don’t understand, or lending huge sums to people who can’t make the payments… now that’s a blunder.

However… the bigest blunder is the one we see over and over again… folks buy into the feeding frenzy of the business flavor des-jours, and somehow convince themselves that the value of that (dot-com stock, house, gallon of gas, or pork belly) is really 2X what is was last year. So they buy in… and when it corrects… they lose half of what they put in.

It’s really sort of a mob mentality… or some weird peer pressure sort of a deal.