10 worst business predictions of 2011

In July, one of the banks passing the European Banking Authority's stress tests sent out a press release cheering the results. "2011 EU-wide Stress Test Results: No Need for Dexia to Raise Additional Capital," it read. Three months later, the Brussels-based bank required a government bailout to avoid collapse.

So was the story of the summer's stress tests: they seemed less a true test than a giant charade. Critics jumped on the EBA for giving Drexia and others a clean bill of health for 2011 when anything but the most generous kind of accounting showed the opposite. No doubt investors were reminded of the European stress tests just a year prior, when a group of banks who passed stress tests, including Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks, soon floundered.

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