When it comes to bad decision making, these folks deserve their dunce caps.

In his new e-book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TEGEBA/ref=cm_plog_item_link"><u><B>Dumb Money: How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation </B></u></a>  NEWSWEEK columnist Daniel Gross delves into the origins of the credit debacle. While vast forces like globalization, the development of a shadow banking system and the widespread use of securitization helped create a climate in which a credit bubble thrived, he concludes that the debacle was a man-made event. In the last several years, pretty much everyone - rich, middle-class, poor, banker, hedge-fund manager, corporate executive -- made stupid decisions when it came to borrowing, lending and spending. But in the pervasive culture of Dumb Money, several actors stood out for the scale of their miscalculations that led to the current crisis. Amid an outstanding field, these seven bigshots turned in outstandingly poor performances. The Dummy Awards go to:

 
 
The Weekly Obsession

The 'Weekly Obsession' is a new video series dissecting the issues that dominate our 24/7 news cycle

green rankings - sum total-environment
Sum Total

Behind every statistic, there's a good story. A look at how facts and figures can add up to something greater than themselves.

7 Things

In this series, NEWSWEEK interviews the artists, celebrities, musicians and newsmakers that fascinate us. In their own words, cultural icons get real about their art, their passions and life on the A-list. (Or B-list, as the case may be.)

Download NEWSWEEK Video Podcast with iTunes
Sponsored by
 
 
 
  • Social Networks
  • Links to this article
 
  • Digg It!
  • Newsvine
  • Del.icio.us
  • Post to MySpace! MySpace
 
 

Email To A Friend

Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.

Separate multiple addresses with commas

SPONSORED BY
 

Discuss

Member Comments

  • Posted By: Nukeboy @ 11/03/2009 10:56:01 PM

    You are missing Barney Frank and the rest of the democrats that pushed the financial industry into making sub-prime loans to people that everyone knew would default. If the government had stayed out of the financial industry decision making, most of the loans that went belly up would not have benn made because they would not have been guaranteed by the federal government. It is amusing to watch all of those people in Congress pretend like they had nothing to do with creating the meltdown. Barney Frnak should be sitting in a jail cell with Bernie Madoff.

  • Posted By: drtbker4life @ 09/01/2009 6:26:06 PM

    If our country was run by tyrants and you had no freedoms and had to worry about your wife/girlfriend/mother/sister getting raped by the police/military/son of the President, would you not want someone to intervene? And please, explain how Bush had a disregard for regulation, because I'm pretty sure that McCain and Bush tried to pass regulation but Democrats such as Barney Frank opposed it.

  • Posted By: drtbker4life @ 09/01/2009 6:23:27 PM

    McCain, and Bush, tried to regulate Freddie and Fannie, but were opposed by the Democrats, led by Barney Frank.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse

View All Comments »