The collapse of Bernard Madoff's investment advisory business in the last days of 2008, and his alleged confession to have committed a $50bn (€35bn, ￡34bn) fraud, was a suitable end to an annus horribilis in the financial world.
The coming year may prove just as horrible for other parts of the economy in the US, Europe and elsewhere. These are very dark days, not only for individual companies but for enterprise as a whole.
The hope for businesses – including retailers that suffered poor sales in the Christmas season – is that 2009 will mark the start of the recovery from what is already a long recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the US recession as starting in December 2007.
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