Fascination with disasters seems to be widespread as evidenced by the rapidity with which Hollywood picks up on so many, in many cases finding them extremely lucrative with a few hitting the top levels of popularity and income. One book listed more than a hundred successful disaster movies. Disasters engineered by terrorists have recently hit …
From the early 1990s Honda pursued high-profile success in the premier international motor-racing series, supplying engines to established teams in The Formula One World Championship with some success. But the mighty Japanese car maker eventually decided to ditch partnership deals and go solo, forming the British-based Honda team that performed well in 2006, though two …
It was inevitable that the fallout from the collapse of international banking and the global government bailouts would add the scum of fraud to the froth of scandal, bubbling to the top of the cauldron of financial disaster. Bernie Madoff is the Big One, but there is absolutely nothing heroic about his Slim Shady wheeling …
Bernie Madoff’s Billion Dollar Ponzi Scam – 2008 Read More »
The world now knows to its cost that the great investment banks lost all sense of disciplined prudence as they greedily grabbed glittering profits in deregulated markets. By developing ever-more sophisticated and complex financial instruments, sharp traders were able to make massive gains for their employers and earn huge cash bonuses themselves. But these flawed …
Five years after its 1999 launch in the USA, Coca-Cola had achieved a marketing miracle with its Dasani bottled water. It was time to ‘grow’ the brand in Europe. Early in 2004, the company spent £7 million introducing Dasani to the UK as ‘pure’ bottled water, meaning (as The Grocer trade magazine pointed out) water …
Founded in 1762, the same year as Barings Bank, Equitable Life used to share the same reputation for probity. That reputation evaporated in 1999 when the insurance company went to court in an effort to renege on its promises to policyholders. It won a shameful judgement, but lost in the Appeal Court. By December 2000, …