101 Dumbest Moments in Business

[ats5g]

From CNNMoney:

101 Dumbest Moments in Business

My favorite was #32: Stocks and bonds, part 2: Proving the value of expensive professional stock-market expertise...

TradingMarkets - a Web site that provides its subscribers with professional stock-market expertise for as much as $100 a month - in January invites 10 Playboy models to participate in an investing contest.

When results are tallied toward the end of the year, 40 percent of the bunnies deliver better returns than the S&P 500, compared with just 29 percent of actively managed mutual funds.

I smell a new mutual fund forthcoming.

Of course, for those grandparents that don't know what to give their grand-daughters, have you thought about the:

$100 Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit

"Mom, Kelsey's hogging the stripper pole again!"

"Unleash the sex kitten inside ... soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance Dollars."

- From a product listing by $75 billion British retailer Tesco, plugging the $100 Peekaboo Pole Dancing Kit - which includes an 8.5-foot chrome pole, a "sexy dance garter," and play money for stuffing into said garter - in the Toys & Games section of its website.

After complaints from parent groups, Tesco decides to keep selling the item as a "fitness accessory" but agrees to remove the listing from the toy section.

- Alec

 

[Leonidas]

Of course, for those grandparents that don't know what to give their grand-daughters, have you thought about the: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0701/gallery.101dumbest_2007/99.html

I had to look at that thing three times to make sure it wasn't a joke. My last assignment at work was, among other things, the head of the unit that issued "Sexually Oriented Entertainer" licenses. Whenever a large convention or sporting event came to town we would be swamped as dancers from across the country flocked here to make the big bucks.

We issued maybe a thousand new licenses each year, but when the Super Bowl came to town we did that in two days. We had topless dancers lined up on the sidewalks literally three quarters of the way around the building. Some of them could be described as what most folks think of as the stereotypical topless dancer, but a lot of them were girls in their late teens and early twenties. Many brought their kids with them.

I was outside looking at the line trying to decide how much help I needed when the media showed up. One print journalist asked me what I thought of it all.

"I think the girls represent a lot of parents' crushed dreams, and thinking of their kids' futures is even more depressing."

Luckily that didn't make it in the paper.

When I look at this "toy" I'm utterly stunned at the stupidity behind it. You have to assume that at least some of the people involved in the creation and marketing of it were parents. What kind of complete ass decides that "pole dancing" is something for a child to emulate. What kind of parent would not stand up and say "this is entirely wrong"?

 

[bssc]

Another vote for the Playboy models outperforming "professional" money managers. Another reason to read it for the financial articles.

 

[2B]

"I think the girls represent a lot of parents' crushed dreams, and thinking of their kids' futures is even more depressing."

I worked with a guy who in a prior life was a "registered rep" with a large brokerage firm. He had as clients a large number of "entertainers" from a well known Houston "gentlemen's club." Their taxable income was well into the six figures in the mid-80's when Houston was in a serious economic downturn. Most discussed ways to safely use the large amount of cash that wasn't being reported on their taxable income documentation without declaring it. The cash portions were frequently greater than their documented taxable income.

They typically had 10 to 15 year "careers." Some planned ahead. Some snorted it all up their noses and had shorter careers as "dancers."

Sexual exploitation anyone?