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Sorry for the lack of updates here over the past few weeks. It harder to update when on the road. I am currently in Columbus, Ohio where both my brothers live and go to school. On Sunday I leave for Atlanta, Georgia. My Year in Review article that comes from a much more personal level will be coming out here in the next couple of week, but I wanted to quickly look back at the train wreck that was 2008. Well before the train wreck, lets look at what happened that was good.
First, we had this amazing Presidential election. We started the year with the Iowa Caucus, and most forget that both the Democratic and Republican Primaries were classic. Everyone focus on the best primary battle ever between Obama and Clinton, but the Republican side was a lot better than typical as well. Really, the Primaries were probably better that the general to watch from a strategic standpoint, but the general election was more historic. There biggest moments in the general were probably the Obama convention and the Sarah Palin VP pick. The time between the beginning on the DNC convention to the Palin VP acceptance speech was some of the best stuff ever. The whole election was a classic, one that will be studied for years to come and resulted in the first non white male President.
Other than that though, the year sucked. The general presidential election was decided on the financial crisis, the biggest since the great depression. Also other business failures such as a failing auto industry and a bubble in the price of gas, along with just about every other commodity on the planet. The S&P 500 lost over 60%. Emerging markets in general were hit worse. Investment banks no longer exist, with Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers and Merill Lynch gone, with only Goldman Sachs around yet still lacking a business model that will work in this new age.
The problems though are not only in financial. We ended our year with a governor trying to sell a vacant senate seat. We had the Mayor of Detroit thrown in Prison. Back in my hometown of Cleveland, Jimmy Dimora was pulled in one of the biggest pay to play schemes in the history of the city. Going back to money, a 50 Billion dollar ponzi was discovered. If we learned anything in 2008, it is that the powerful man is filled with sin.
A small hope was in sports, as we had one of the best Super Bowls ever. Still, the World Series was drenched in rain (fitting) and to top it all off, we had the first win-less football team since the start of the 16 game season. Good Riddance to 2008, lets hope 2009 is a bit better.
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