September 2008 is likely to be looked back on by historians as the month the storm really hit. In that month we saw the bail-out and/or collapse of five of America's biggest financial institutions - Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and AIG, one of the world's biggest insurers.
Here's a
look back
to one of those gloomy September days.
2. The tech bubble 1998- 2001
In the late 1990s and early years of this decade there was a widespread acceptance that many fortunes stood to be made online.
There were a lot of dreams, some came true, some didn't. Every Google or Amazon that succeeded was accompanied by the collapse of Kiwi Amazon wannabe Flying Pig.
But people were asking that fateful question
Who's making money from the internet?
from June 2000 (the tech-heavy NASDAQ index peaked in March of that year)
3. Collapse and bailout of Air NZ - 2001
Ansett collapsed on September 12, 2001 and the next day Air New Zealand announced a loss of $1425 million for the June year and an $885 million Government bailout.
A later top-up took the total amount taxpayers put into the airline at more than a billion dollars.
Here's how the
whole sorry saga
unfolded.
4.Rise of Graeme Hart
He only talks to the media when he needs to and while he might be richer than Donald Trump, he doesn't seem to have a need to appear in TV reality shows.
And he's made money in Australia where many a New Zealand business has come to grief.
2006 was probably his
biggest year
, when the stock exchange said goodbye to former blue chip heavyweight
Carter Holt Harvey
.
5. Collapse of the finance companies 2007-2008
Rats and mice had been quietly going under, but it was the
collapse of Bridgecorp
that really signalled the end of the finance company sector in NZ.
A total of $600m in funds, belonging to the cliched "Kiwi Mums and Dads", was frozen and those Mums and Dads - or at least those with money to invest - were in the gun.
They haven't got their money back yet, but this year will at least be able to watch the men who were supposed to be looking after their money sweat it out in front of a judge.
6. Telecom separation 2006
Our biggest listed company fought a long, often successful, but ultimately doomed war against those wanting to break it up.
Government eventually bit the bullet, but the premature release of the plan via the meddling fingers of a cycle-riding messenger man was the
biggest business story
of 2006.
7. The birth of Fonterra 2001
What's a
Fonterra
? - hard to imagine that just a few years ago the word was just an idea cloud on a whiteboard somewhere.
It was a long and tortuous journey, but in 2001 the dairy giant was formed out of the merger of the Dairy Board, New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Dairies.
It's maintained its place as New Zealand's only true multinational and is still our largest corporate by a long shot.
8. Launch of KiwiSaver
It's Budget Day 2006 and then Finance Minister Michael Cullen unveils his big idea.
It's called
KiwiSaver
and is designed to help New Zealanders save for their retirement.
And despite being trimmed back by the new National Government, it's proved a hit with the
public
.
9. The New Zealand property boom - 1998-2008
Ka-ching! Home owners are getting richer, almost by the day. Home owners riding a $500 a day rocket! Or so said the
headlines
.
Barbecue chatter and Sunday newspaper headlines would never be the same again. Property prices, they went up, up up! You couldn't go wrong with property, said everybody.
But alas, even the media turned off the hype machine when things started turning sour in 2008. They were later
accused
of over-hyping the slump.
10. The collapse of Enron and accountancy scandals
It may seem a bit tame given the events of 2008, both in New Zealand and in the US, but the 2001 collapse of energy company
Enron
and revelations of
corporate greed and thievery
shocked the business world.
Regulation of listed companies increased dramatically as a result. But did the new regulations
do any good
?
