It's no question that 2011 was a difficult year for markets, corporations, governments, and pretty much anyone with exposure to Europe.
But the year was only made worse by errors and some insanely poor decisions that made investors question the people running those same companies and governments.
We compiled a list of the most epic fails of the year. Have one you think we missed? Leave it in the comments and we'll add it if it's just as bad as (or worse than) the nine we present here.
Greece plans to vote on austerity measures, then reneges
In November, Greek PM George Papandreou announced Greece would hold a referendum on austerity measures in January. EU leaders criticized the vote, suggesting that Greece would have to leave the euro if it didn't accept the austerity measures. But it turned out that the referendum was all a bluff, when Papandreou cancelled it, saying "I will be glad even if we don’t go to a referendum, which was never a purpose in itself. I’m glad that all this discussion has at least brought a lot of people back to their senses." He then offered his resignation, a temporary national unity government, and elections early next year in return for support in a confidence vote.
FOMC announcement delayed because of broken copy machine
On the day the Federal Open Markets Committee would announce Operation Twist, a plan to buy billions of long-term federal debt while selling shorter-term notes, the copy machine used to distribute the announcement jammed. The slow down resulted in a delay in the eagerly anticipated news and sent Twitter aflutter. The announcement was twice as long as normal — five pages to the typical two — which may have caused the jam. That wasn't the only time the Fed has had issues timing its release. Later in the year, a news organization broke the strict embargo on FOMC minutes, pushing news outlets to follow suit.
The National Association of Realtors announces the mother of all data revisions
After continued calls that its data was inflated, the National Association of Realtors admitted that during its data collection it double counted certain sales. The news forced a 14% downward revision of existing home sales, representing the loss of more than two million sales from that inflated rate. The NAR took significant heat for the mistake, and in doing so, painted a far bleaker picture of the nation's housing market than was originally thought.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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See Also:
- The 18 Cities Where Housing Is Worse Than It Was Last Year
- Here Are 10 Huge Geopolitical Risks That Could Make Or Break Markets In 2012
- Wheat Prices Are Nearing Their Two-Month Highs
