Jin Lee, Adam Berry / Bloomberg / Getty Images
10. Reinhardt Rogoff Spreadsheet Error
In the years after the financial crisis, government leaders across the political spectrum have been focused on the question of government debt. To argue against government spending, debt-phobic politicians relied on a study from economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart which showed that countries with high debt grow at a slower rate. A simple spreadsheet error made by the economists in their calculations, however, greatly skewed their findings. It turns out there isn’t much of a correlation between debt and growth levels, after all. Oops.
9. Lululemon’s See-Through Pants
If you were to rank the most important qualities for a pair of pants, opacity would surely be high on the list. It appears athletic wear retailer Lululemon lost sight of this fact when customers began to complain that its most popular line of yoga pants became translucent after only limited use. Lululemon worked to fix the issue, recalling the faulty pants and revamping its quality control process, but the problem resurfaced in November when Lululemon co-founder Chip Wilson partly blamed the defect on his customers bodies being unfit for his product.
8. Carnival ‘Poop Cruise’
If being stranded on a cruise ship without electricity or working toilets doesn’t sound like great vacation to you, you’re not alone. In February, Carnival Cruise’s Triumph was stranded at sea for five days before being towed to port in Mobile, Alabama. The episode was widely covered on cable news, eventually being dubbed the “poop cruise” because the lack of working toilets caused the boat to smell like a “hot port-o-pottie,” according to one account.
7. Barney’s Alleged Racial Profiling
In October, Trayon Christian, an African American shopper at the luxury retailer Barney’s, sued the store, accusing it of racial profiling. The suit was the result of Christian’s being detained and questioned by police after buying an expensive belt. Turns out this isn’t the first time an African American had been stopped by police after making expensive purchases at Barneys. The incident sparked outrage from the community. Barney’s own investigation places blame on the police, while a New York Attorney General inquiry is still ongoing.
6. Time Warner-CBS Spat
Time Warner learned the hard way that cable subscribers fork over their hard earned cash each month for access to content, rather than its sterling customer service. In the quarter after Time Warner cable subscribers were blocked for a month from watching CBS content because the network was demanding higher fees, the cable company shed 300,000 subscribers. Analysts estimate half of that number was due to the blackout.
Lucas Jackson / Reuters
5. NASDAQ’s Trading Glitch
In August, the NASDAQ stock exchange, home to such powerhouses as Apple and Microsoft, halted trading and left traders in the dark for nearly three hours as it worked out a computer glitch. That came at a bad time for NASDAQ, as it was just recovering from a 2012 technical mishap that caused disruptions in the much-anticipated Facebook IPO.
4. JP Morgan’s Legal Problems
After years of being considered the smartest and most well-run bank in the country, JP Morgan has been beset by a series of scandals that have tarnished the firm’s reputation and cost it big. JP Morgan’s woes culminated in a November settlement which had the bank paying roughly $13 billion to settle investigations into its mortgage backed securities business.
3. Silk Road Gets Shutdown
When Ross William Ulbrecht–the alleged mastermind behind the online black market Silk Road–was arrested in October, the clearinghouse was seized along with millions in ill-gotten bitcoins, the virtual currency that powered Silk Road.
2. SAC Insider Trading Scandal
Federal investigators had been on the hedge fund SAC Capital for years before they indicted the firm on criminal insider trading charges this fall. Though SAC founder Steve Cohen has personally avoided criminal charges, the SEC is pursuing a civil case that would bar him for life from working in the securities business.
1. Home Depot’s Racist Tweet
How much trouble can 140 characters cause? Home Depot found out the hard way. A tweet sent by the home improvement retailer in early November depicting a man in a gorilla costume and two African American men drumming on overturned buckets read, “Which drummer is not like the others?” was deemed offensive or stupid by, well, pretty much everyone.
Source: Time
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