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And We Blew Some
Of the millions of words we've published, there are some, frankly, that we would like to take back. For example, last year some madwoman who spells her name just like mine was certain that $40 oil would never stick. Hey, nobody's prefect.
(FORTUNE Magazine) – KEY: [Dumb call] [Dumber call] [Ouch!] [What were we smoking?] July 1934 "... fascism remains, like the tariff, essentially a local issue." [What were we smoking?] March 1939 "... it appears practically impossible for Roosevelt to be elected in 1940 unless his opposition is seriously divided between the Republicans and a third party." [Dumb call] February 1946 Shanghai: Reopened Under New Management "Shanghailanders are sure that for the next few years, in the absence of help from Russia, the Communists are at last safely lifted from the main part of China's development." [Ouch!] April 1949 "The plain fact stands that the U.S., with everything in its favor, has had a clear field in which to operate, and on the field has spent more than $1 billion in fumbling attempts to revive the Japanese economy." [What were we smoking?] February 1954 "In several important respects the stock market appears to have become obsolete." [What were we smoking?] December 1958 "... the television 'audience' is almost at the saturation point." [Dumber call] February 1961 Can Protestantism Hold Its Own in a Modern America? "We may be seeing the last of the great American revivals." [Ouch!] July 1972 "The rotary engine has emerged almost abruptly as the coming prime source of automotive power in the U.S., if not in the world." [What were we smoking?] February 1974 Ominous Changes in the World's Weather "Climatologists now blame those recurring droughts and floods on a global cooling trend." [What were we smoking?] December 1974 It's a Bear Market for Babies Too "Zero population growth [in the U.S.] is no longer a far-fetched notion but a real possibility." [Ouch!] September 1975 "The most exciting role for methanol, involving an even bigger energy market, would be to power autos and trucks." [Ouch!] November 1976 The Last Billionaires "We may never see their like again." [What were we smoking?] August 1977 "The U.S. multinational shows incipient signs of decay. The special circumstance that led to the rise of most America multinationals has long since disappeared." [What were we smoking?] September 1977 Why the Breeder Reactor Is Inevitable [What were we smoking?] Jan. 30, 1978 "Fusion power--safe, clean, and virtually inexhaustible--is envisioned toward the end of the century." [Ouch!] March 24, 1980 Citicorp's Rocky Affair With the Consumer ... [John] Reed seems the least likely of the three to succeed Wriston." [Ouch!] June 2, 1980 Comeback Decade for the American Car [Dumber call] July 28, 1980 Why Carter Will Probably Win [Dumb call] May 17, 1993 Could AT&T Rule the World? "... no company may profit more from the coming convergence of computers and telecommunications." [Ouch!] June 12, 1995 Get Ready for the Flat Tax: It's Hot, It's Now, It Could Change the Way you Live [Dumber call] May 15, 2000 "Can you justify selling this stock [Cisco] now? I don't think so!" [What were we smoking?] |
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