Looking back, didn’t the 1990s seem so boring in comparison to the 2000s? Ok, the 1990s had the fall of the Soviet Union, the emergence of the World Wide Web, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, the impeachment of a U.S. President, and, of course, O.J. Simpson. But, let’s face it, some of those stories would have trouble competing for front page real estate with the news events of this past decade. It would be difficult to find a decade that has been filled with stories with such wide sweeping global impact. Perhaps, the only one to come close in the last 100 years is the 1930’s, a decade that has been compared repeatedly to the 2000s.
Over 6,200 military personnel hailing from 33 nations, including 5,306 from the U.S., have lost their lives fighting in military operations on two separate fronts in the last 10 years. Terrorism has rocked major cities like New York, London, Washington DC, Madrid, and Mumbai. Tsunamis, of different sorts, have swept away small coastal towns and major global financial markets. No wonder Time Magazine calls the 2000s the Decade from Hell.
When we asked the Zicklin community to list the five most significant news events that define the decade in business, some responded with, “Are you kidding…five?” We knew it would be a daunting task. So, we decided not to be sticklers.
The following are the lists of five (plus) stories that members of the Zicklin community believe define the decade in business.
Seth Lipner, Faculty of Law
1. The Credit Mess: Wall Street brought us to near collapse of the economy in 2008.
2. The Tech Wreck: Corrupt auditors, money-hungry executives and phony Wall Street analysts crash stock market
3. The Madoff Ponzi Scheme: The rich got fleeced as the SEC ignored the signs of fraud
4. The Rise of Wireless Internet: Everyone gets a blackberry
5. The End of the Tiger Woods brand
Hugo Nurnberg, Faculty of Accountancy and Taxation
1. The pay czar restricting executive compensation
2. Obama’s election
3. Pending passage of health care legislation
4. General Motors’ bankruptcy
5. Madoff Ponzi scheme
6. SEC moves toward International Financial Reporting Standards
7. Europe adopts the Euro
8. U.S. dollar falls in half relative to the Euro
9. Hi-tech bubble bursts
10. Subprime mortgage market crashes
11. China emerges as the third largest economy
12. World Trade Center attack
13. U.S. topples Taliban regime in Afghanistan
14. U.S topples Iraqi regime
Regine Goldberg, Director of Student Life
1. The Euro becomes legal tender in twelve European Union countries in 2002. It is the largest monetary union in history. The Euro eases trade in the Eurozone. By 2009, four more countries join the Euro, Slovenia in 2007, Malta and Cyprus in 2008 and Slovakia in 2009.
2. Bernie Madoff… One man’s powerful scheme has ruined the lives of thousands. Where were the regulators? Who was watching?
3. Major downturn in the value of dot-com shares, with occasional exceptions (Google’s IPO on August 13, 2004). The Internet itself continues to grow as a business and advertising medium, with steady increases in online shopping and banking activities. Other successful firms include Amazon.com and eBay.
4. Enron and other major accounting and corporate governance scandals prompt reviews of corporate government legislation worldwide (eg Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
5. The collapse of the American housing market caused difficulty for the two mortgage brokers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been subject to fears of collapse.
Donald Vredenburgh, Professor of Management
1. The 2008-2009 recession has wrought major societal impact. The securitization of subprime mortgages into collateral debt obligations and the extensive use of swap derivatives led to the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and the TARP bailout. The recession necessitated a large government stimulus bill and included a substantial housing market downturn and rise in unemployment. Consumer financial protection government regulation will likely ensue, as will more extensive regulation of large financial institutions deemed too big to fail, and increased deficits and accumulated debt will bring long run fiscal policy consequences.
2. The Bush 2000 election and 9-11 defined the decade to a considerable extent. Tax decreases and lessened governmental regulation shaped the economic culture, while the Iraq and Afghanistan wars largely determined international affairs for the US. The unfunded Medicare prescription drug plan constituted a major social policy change with fiscal policy implications. A healthy economy falling into a recession and international disapprobation brought in Obama a marked change in government policy orientation.
3. Constituting one sixth of the US economy, health care significantly affects growth and employment. The health care reform that unfolds will influence business decisions and fiscal policy for many years, particularly given increasing life spans and the baby boom generation size.
4. The Enron et al. scandals, followed by the Madoff Ponzi scheme, fostered perceptions of egregiously poor business ethics. The Sarbanes – Oxley law resulted.
5. At the risk of exaggerating the importance of current events, business observers cannot fail to note the enlarged scope of an environmental sensibility. International concern has spread beyond activists to business persons, and economic opportunities are emerging.
Robert Blau, Faculty of Statistics
1. 9/11 was a world-changing event. Its impact was far reaching in lots of areas (e.g. political, economic, social,).
2. Sarbanes-Oxley had subtle impacts. (E.g. some business went overseas, fear of over-regulation led to lack of regulation elsewhere,)
3. The rise of China may be the most significant of them all from a long-term perspective; it is just too difficult to know at this time.
4. Nothing need be said about the near-collapse of the world-wide financial system. But it is possible that this will have predominantly a short-term impact (and then fade away into history).
5. A similar comment can be made about the GM debacle; perhaps it is just short-term.
Fran Murphy, Director of Graduate Admissions
1. 9 – 11 – World Trade Center Disaster
2. Collapse of Lehman Brothers
3. Dow loses 50% from it’s all time high (10/07 – 13930; 2/09 – 7062)
4. Enron
5. Rise of technology & social media
Thank you to those in the Zicklin community who participated in today’s survey. Tomorrow, we will be looking at the five innovations/ideas that define the decade.
