101 Dumbest Moments in Business

Ah, what a dumb year it was! Fortune chose the absolutely dumbest of the dumb that the gods of fate and humor delivered into our laps - and yours - this past year.

By the Editors of Fortune
Juan Carlos
BACK NEXT 80 of 101
80. Juan Carlos
... but I aced international diplomacy!
After Hugo Chávez calls the former Prime Minister of Spain a "fascist" at a summit in Chile, Spanish King Juan Carlos leaps to his countryman's defense. His retort to Chavez, "Why don't you shut up?" becomes one of the nation's most popular cellphone ringtones, downloaded more than 500,000 times within ten days.
Last updated January 16 2008: 5:51 PM ET

Mattel
Eli Lilly
Leona Helmsley
Merrill Lynch
Stanley O'Neal
Chuck Prince
High-tech toilets
KFC/Taco Bell
French newspaper Le Monde
Electronic voting machines
Oil spills
Procter & Gamble
Disneyland
Naked Sunday
Bindeez
Microsoft's PR firm
Cocaine energy drink
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
New Jersey Superior Court
O.J. Simpson
Cartoon Network
Naming rights
Don Imus
Chris Albrecht
Adam "Pacman" Jones
Isiah Thomas
Phil Spector
Keith Richards
Swiss newspaper
James Cayne
Bear Stearns analysts
Jay-Z
Oral B
Summit Products
M&Ms
Best Buy
Judge Roy Pearson
Google
Damien Hirst
Comcast
National Amusements
Pfizer
The Toronto Blue Jays
Bank of America
Serendipity 3
Johnson & Johnson
John Mackey
The European Union
German screw factory
The Defense Department
Apple
Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome
Japanese arm-wrestlers
Research in Motion
Frank Gehry
Chrysler
Endemol Southern Star
Taco Bell
Radiohead
John Griffin
Sony
Nepal Airlines
Sony
Spain's National Institute of Statistics
Verizon Wireless
Rhode Island Hospital
McDonald's
Thomas the Tank Engine
Exelon Nuclear
Circuit City
TCF Bank
Paris Hilton
Easy-Bake Ovens
Google
Mummified corpses
Jessica Simpson
Jackson Hewitt
The Virginia Tourism Corp.
Hugo Chávez
Juan Carlos
365 Main
One Laptop Per Child
CIBC analyst Meredith Whitney
Southwest Airlines
Singapore Airlines
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal
SkyWest Airlines
Doug Parker
British Airways
Southwest Airlines, Part 2
Iberia Airlines
Jet Blue
British Airways Part 2
World Toilet Association
Kitson boutique
WikiScanner
Blogger
Intel
Century 21
D.R. Horton
Maria Bartiromo
More Dumbest
The complete 101
The complete 101
See the full list, featuring the very best of the very worst moments this year. (more)
Sex, drugs & celebrities
Sex, drugs & celebrities
When it comes to crossing the line, bold-faced names rarely disappoint. (more)
Bosses behaving badly
Bosses behaving badly
The mind-boggling mishaps that took place in the executive - and hotel - suite. (more)
Contact Us Closed Captioning Manage Cookies+ Site Map

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.