As of 2023, 95% of NFTs are worthless. NFT stands for “non-fungible token”, and essentially means that you can buy a code that says you own a digital asset, which is then stored on the blockchain, a centralized public transaction ledger. There was a lot of hyped future uses for this technology, such as transforming the way people viewed and bought and thought about art and collectibles.
In 1980, the Joe Barry Carroll trade was one the most lopsided trades in NBA history. The Warriors traded two future Hall of Famers, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, for Joe Barry Carroll. Joe got the nickname “Joe Barely Cares,” while the Celtics won three championships in six seasons.
Launched in 2008, the Tata Nano was a microcar intended to appeal to current riders of motorcycles and scooters. Announced as the most affordable production car in the world, the price was brought down by dispensing with most nonessential features, reducing the amount of steel used in its construction, and relying on low cost Indian labor. This led to reductions like the passenger’s side wing mirror, one wiper blade, only three lug nuts per wheel or removal of the fuel filler cap from the tank. Sales were far below expectations due to early instances of the Nano catching fire and the perception of the car being unsafe and lacking quality due to cost cutting
In 1999, Mike Ditka of the New Orleans Saints moved up in the NFL draft from the 12th to the 5th pick so he could select Ricky Williams. To do so, his team traded every pick it had in the 1999 draft, plus two of its first three picks in the 2000 NFL Draft. The Saints struggled in the 1999 season and Ditka was fired, while Williams only played three season for the Saints.
In May 2011, the Veer smartphone was released and then it was discontinued in August 2011. The Veer is a minimal 3.3 inches long and just 2.1 inches wide with a screen that measures just 2.6 inches diagonally. That size makes it ultraportable, but with a limited amount of screen real estate it was hard to watch video, work on Word and Excel documents, or browse the web.
In 2005, Four Loko, aka the blackout-in-a-can, was banned by the FDA. Created in a fraternity basement, Four Loko provided the equivalent of 4 glasses of wine and a couple of Red Bulls – a potent recipe.
In 2023, Signature Bank, the 19th largest US Bank, was shut down after depositors withdrew large amounts of money when Silicon Valley Bank failed. Signature Bank had a high concentration of cryptocurrency customers with digital asset-related client deposits at $16.52B. Signature was one of the few financial institutions that took deposits of crypto assets, a business it entered in 2018. That ended up being a fateful decision because the bottom fell out of crypto assets after the collapse of FTX.
In 2001, the Dreamcast failed after two years on the market due to competition from PlayStation and Xbox, limited third party support, and Japanese consumers preferring a smaller controller.
In 2009, a confluence of errors from a server failure hurt its main and backup databases supporting Sidekick. All contacts, photos, calendars, and to-do lists that weren’t locally backup were gone.
In 2008, Mark Madoff and his brother Andrew exposed the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme committed by their father Bernie. They confronted their father over his plans to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to employees months ahead of schedule. Bernie then confessed to them that his business was a long-running Ponzi scheme that was collapsing under the global financial crisis. While no criminal charges were filed against Mark Madoff, the scandal and its aftermath proved devastating to his personal and professional life. On December 11, 2010, Mark Madoff committed suicide on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest.
