Epitaph for 2008: 'I don't know how much worse it can get'

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By Gary Norris, The Canadian Press

& q& |' `; \- @/ wTORONTO - At the start of 2008, with the foundations of the financial system cracking and oil topping US$100 a barrel for the first time, suburban Philadelphia shopper Susan Witte spoke for many when she told a reporter: "It's just crazy. I don't know how much worse it can get."
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At the end of the year, she's probably still wondering.
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The Detroit Three automakers, titans of a seemingly all-powerful industrial economy, face insolvency. Ford sold England's iconic Jaguar and Land Rover units to Tata Motors of India. Wall Street icons were smashed on all sides, while commodities boomed and busted.

+ O* {) r4 m% t" j, xAmidst the year's disorienting ups and - mostly - downs, Taser International offered a glint of security: a civilian version of its electrical stun gun, in designer colours and nestled in a holster alongside an MP3 music player.

A quick skim of notable business events of 2008:

, }* B6 O1 E# X# Q! ]7 @JANUARY:

KPMG reports global auto industry executives are increasingly cheerful and "profitability expectations are starting to grow."
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Canadarm maker MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX: MDA.TO) announces a $1.3-billion sale of its space business to U.S.-based Alliant Techsystems. The deal was shot down in May by the federal government.

Manulife Finance (TSX: MFC.TO) invests $500 million in CIBC (TSX: CM.TO) at $65.26 a share. CIBC stock ended the year under $50, while Manulife shares fall from $40 to under $20.

Congress and the Bush administration agree on a stimulus package giving most U.S. taxpayers refunds of $600 to $1,200.

% Y% ~/ P1 X( }/ ~6 h( L, ?# P3 IFrench bank Societe Generale discloses what was called the biggest trading fraud ever carried out by a single person - 4.9 billion euros, blamed on 31-year-old Jerome Kerviel.

Applause erupts in a Montreal courtroom as Vincent Lacroix, former head of the Norbourg investment firm, gets a 12-year prison term for bilking 9,200 investors of $115 million.

) @$ ?6 B" w' d- A! I, Z1 }FEBRUARY:

A court in northeastern China upholds a death sentence for Wang Zhendong in a US$400-million ant-breeding fraud.
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( @  o. A. d. tChrysler introduces the Challenger, a Canadian-made muscle car with a 425-horsepower V-8. General Motors reports a 2007 net loss of US$38.7 billion.
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8 D) w. r0 B* ^The United Nations World Food Program says many of the world's poor are going hungry because of soaring food prices caused partly by the use of crops to make biofuels.

The U.K. government nationalizes Northern Rock after the first run on a British bank in 140 years.
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Nortel Networks (TSX: NT.TO) eliminates 2,100 jobs and moves 1,000 to "higher-growth and lower-cost geographies." Its shares close Feb. 27 at $9.68, down from $35 a year earlier. By the end of 2008, Nortel is a penny stock. It closed Monday at 32.5 cents in Toronto.
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MARCH:
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Conrad Black reports to Coleman prison in Florida to begin a 6 1/2-year sentence for fraud and obstructing justice. Friends describe the fallen media magnate as "serene."

+ ~; V8 k* N& BThe Men's Wearhouse, U.S. owner of the Moores haberdashery chain in Canada, announces it will shut its apparel plant in Montreal, cutting 540 jobs.

The Zimbabwean dollar falls to 25 million to one U.S. dollar.

$ U* u, D3 p1 i" d* bAmerican investment bank Bear Stearns fails and is taken over by JPMorgan Chase.

  E/ L& s9 `/ p! j1 k3 N* h5 t0 x! GAPRIL:

, _3 m4 Q& L, j: }0 F* d# ?# HA natural gas discovery by Forest Oil Corp. prompts a flurry of interest in the St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec.

The federal government pays pork producers $50 million to kill 150,000 pigs to ease oversupply.

3 }8 |4 O/ I9 }' }* n7 e/ kCrocs Inc. announces the closure of its Quebec City factory, ending 670 jobs as it shifts shoe production to Mexico.

2 U* |9 ^: Z; m/ s1 b; SToyota becomes the world's most prolific carmaker, passing General Motors in terms of production.

Computer maker Dell announces the closure of its 2 1/2-year-old Ottawa call centre, eliminating 1,100 jobs.
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Investors in $32 billion of asset-backed commercial paper, frozen since August 2007, approve a plan to restructure the notes. The restructuring drags on, now expected to be resolved in January.

MAY:
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Quebec furniture maker Shermag Inc. (TSX: SMG.TO) seeks court protection from creditors.
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General Motors announces it will shut its transmission plant in Windsor, Ont., in 2010, hitting 1,400 workers.

An earthquake in Sichuan province kills an estimated 69,000 people. Analysts predict only a transitory jolt to China's economy.
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$ }2 q  r3 d; @3 q- O$ o! N) IThe Canadian Auto Workers union concludes hasty negotiations with the Detroit Three automakers, accepting a pay freeze.
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Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. cancels two new MAPLE medical-isotope reactors, blaming costs and risks.
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As oil prices spiral higher, restaurants complain of thefts of cooking-oil grease for use as diesel fuel.
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Statistics Canada reports that for the first time more Canadians are involved in selling products than in manufacturing them.
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JUNE:

Research In Motion stock (TSX: RIM.TO) peaks at $150.30 on the TSX. It ends the year at less than one-third that price.

6 e% y# _; M/ B( D: h8 s* X0 r; DIn a move the Canadian Auto Workers calls an illegal betrayal, General Motors says it will shut four truck plants, including one in Oshawa, Ont., that employs 2,600 people.
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7 G( P2 D4 l# F0 L/ A: CThe Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development predicts tougher times, but in Canada "no recession is expected."
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Former TV personality Ed McMahon says his Beverly Hills house is facing foreclosure.
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Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says the risk of a serious recession appears to have diminished.

Shares in fertilizer maker Agrium Inc. (TSX: AGU.TO) peak at $116, before ending the year under $40. Potash Corp. (TSX: POT.TO) hits $246, closing 2008 at one-third that level.
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: q, t5 z3 v+ ]$ v( u, l* lRCMP lay fraud charges against former Nortel CEO Frank Dunn. On the same day the Mounties charge Royal Group Technologies founder Vic De Zen in an unrelated case.
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JULY:

0 h. g5 K! |! ^7 g. {) xBombardier Inc. (TSX: BBD-B.TO) announces it will go ahead with the long-delayed CSeries airliner.

1 Q" I' h$ v$ v$ WThe U.S. government bails out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
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3 R9 `: z# n! ?$ nCrude oil peaks at US$147.27 on July 11, then begins a long, steep decline.
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1 y4 @# z6 b# o' L. r# n5 eGeneral Motors presents its 2010 Camaro muscle car, to be assembled in Oshawa.

% b) {4 B; y+ XAUGUST:
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The House of Commons subcommittee on oil and gas and other energy prices begins probing what one MP calls "a bread and butter issue that no one can ignore."

9 y! E3 g3 r: n' ?* aOil prices, mining stocks and the Canadian dollar all slide, with crude ending the month at US$115 a barrel, en route to about $40 at year-end.
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Maple Leaf Foods (TSX: MFI.TO) recalls ready-to-eat meat products amid a nationwide Listeria outbreak blamed for 20 deaths.
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  W0 L5 Q/ Q  R0 C9 L) VBarbie maker Mattel Inc. wins US$100 million in a California copyright lawsuit against MGA Entertainment, maker of Bratz dolls.

SEPTEMBER:

4 X* y4 R; @2 s0 T8 rLehman Brothers, a 158-year-old U.S. investment bank, files for bankruptcy, triggering panic on financial markets.

Merrill Lynch, America's largest stock brokerage, is rescued in a takeover by Bank of America valued at US$50 billion.
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$ x) h# A8 r$ g; ?% I5 C, UCentral banks inject hundreds of billions of dollars into credit markets to support confidence, and slash interest rates to encourage borrowing.

: L, }3 I* ^) f& c) H6 UThe Toronto Stock Exchange's main index suffers a record one-day point loss, dropping 840.93 points on Sept. 29. That record is broken Dec. 1 with a plunge of 864.41 points.

  K' V, E0 q: K0 ZOCTOBER:

; A9 n- E! B* P+ w. tRussian oligarch Oleg Deripaska is forced to sell his 20 million shares in Canadian autoparts maker Magna International to prop up other parts of his empire.
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9 u4 h! |7 u. p  h$ o) wPlastic surgeons report sagging business as patients tighten their belts.

Zimbabwe's inflation rate is reported at 231 million per cent.
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The U.S. Congress approves a $700-billion financial-industry bailout.

Paul Krugman, a critic of the Bush administration (and of the financial-sector bailout) wins the Nobel prize in economics.

NOVEMBER:
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Gasoline prices fall decisively under $1 a litre in much of Canada, down from summer peaks above $1.40.
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# ~" g7 f; Q2 n5 D7 f3 zCanwest Global Communications (TSX: CGS.TO) cuts 560 jobs, five per cent of its workforce, and writes down the value of its Canadian TV operations by $1 billion.
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Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says "recession is a possibility for Canada."
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4 T2 y8 \+ i. }8 u# ^Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSXV: TCK-B.V) suspends dividends, slashes spending and sells assets as it staggers under US$9.8 billion in debt taken on to acquire the Fording Canadian Coal Trust in October. Teck stock, which peaked at $52.90 last spring, ends the year at about one-tenth that price.

* T# P% G. t* v# {5 j- UThe executives of the Detroit Three automakers fly to Washington in corporate jets to beg for a $25-billion bailout.
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( h6 [) e/ y1 h* J& ?, F8 o1 VCanadian car dealers appeal for government aid.

. m6 L2 Q; I- @$ z+ Z+ ?BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, gives up on a US$68-billion hostile takeover of Rio Tinto, whose holdings include Alcan.

A 34-year-old worker at a Long Island Wal-Mart is trampled to death as the holiday shopping season opens.

( X9 E  L0 E6 U) p7 H/ Q& DDECEMBER:
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, s5 E6 w0 _, M& z: y2 w* ^Ted Rogers, founder of Canada's largest cable-TV and cellphone network operator, dies at 75.

# `  a# b9 ]/ [9 j8 Q! p( wThe Detroit Three CEOs go to Washington again to appeal for aid - this time driving hybrid vehicles.

Wall Street fixture Bernard Madoff, 70, is charged with fraud in an alleged Ponzi scam said to have cost investors US$50 billion.
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The proposed $52-billion takeover of BCE Inc. (TSX: BCE.TO) by an investor group led by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan collapses.

Merchandise worth US$100 million is stolen from the Harry Winston (TSX: HW.TO) jewelry store in Paris.
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Former Hollinger newspaper executive David Radler is released after 10 months of a 29-month prison term for fraud, secured in a plea bargain for testifying against former associate Conrad Black.

Newspaper publisher Sun Media cuts 600 jobs, 10 per cent of its staff.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government moves to expropriate resource rights held by AbitibiBowater (TSX: ABH.TO) after the newsprint maker says it will shut a paper mill and cut 800 workers.

The Federal Reserve cuts its key policy interest rate to a record low of between zero and 0.25 per cent.

# p* A9 p+ J0 W/ p$ }Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, 65, who lost more than $1 billion of clients' and family money in the Madoff scam, is found dead at his New York office, both wrists slashed.