With the benefit of hindsight, the stock market makes perfect sense. Of course the rise of the Internet in the 1990s would be an economic boon. Of course credit markets were horribly overextended in 2008, resulting in a massive correction. The same holds true at a micro level as well. In hindsight, the overwhelming challenges of companies that have gone belly up seem obvious. But at the time, the naive outlooks and ultimately disastrous business plans made sense to management and to investors. Although more inspired leadership may have saved some of these companies, incompetency alone isn't to blame. Sometimes the innovations and macroeconomic events that disrupt companies or even entire industries seem to happen overnight. Continue reading →
