This Day In Blunders: About The Series
Explore the history of business faux pas, failures and frauds in this day-by-day calendar of calamities
This archive tracks major business blunders that occurred on each day of the year, from historic corporate collapses to modern fraud cases and executive failures.
Dear Readers:
Welcome to a new feature I’ve called “This Day In Blunders.” It’s a collection of the worst decisions, deceptions and dealings in American business history.
It’s too much to email it to you, so here’s a handy link to the archive, which is organized in monthly sections:
Each item has a handy link to a primary document, historical accounting or contemporaneous news story for easy research.
Why am I bothering with all this?
First, it’s my personal reference file, helping me keep a historical perspective on today’s endless business blunders. And second …
Well, I suppose Bob Marley sang it most succinctly: “Don’t know your past, don’t know your future.”
People forget about the past when navigating their careers, their investments, their purchases and their lives in general. How else can they remain optimists?
Granted, it’s no fun being a cynic, but you don’t want to be a rube or dupe, either.
“This Day In Blunders” servers as a daily reminder of all that could go horribly wrong.
You may have noticed pieces of it already in my Substack Notes and social media feeds. It’s a lot to muddle through all at once, yet fun to explore a day at a time.
Some of these posts take us back more than a century. Like this one about the NYSE president who stole from widows and orphans … literally:
Read More: Richard Whitney – New York Stock Exchange (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
When I started this project, I thought it might be difficult to find a cautionary tale for each day of the year. But no. This folly goes back a long way, and it goes on all the time.
History shows that incompetence, ignorance, fraud deception, and corporate skullduggery are baked into our economic system.
On the plus side, we have checks and balances, and the system is large enough to overcome its worst elements – assuming your investments are properly diversified. But we must remain wary of those who would roll over anybody in their relentless pursuits of wealth and power.
I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions on this effort:
I’ve been covering business blunders my entire career as a financial journalist, yet in pursuing this project I marveled at how many of these travesties that even I had forgotten.
Always remember: Human nature never changes, and wherever there’s a big pot of money, there’s always somebody trying to pinch it.
Thanks for reading.