The following is a modified post from the Motley Fool Editors' blog. You can see all the posts here.
Taking some inspiration from Morgan Housel's "The Past Decade in 50 Headlines," we present 25 Stupid Things We Were Thinking on Dec. 31, 1999:
- The Internet has eliminated stock market cycles ... this paradigm has shifted!
- You'd have to be a moron not to invest in Enron -- it's revolutionizing the way we deal with energy.
- Warren Buffett had a good run, but his investing style is obsolete. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) is as played out as the original textile mill.
- Gas sure is cheap. Stop -- Hummer time!
- Are you Y2K compliant?
- MTV's The Real World is kinda interesting, but this whole reality-TV thing is a fad. They'll go back to playing videos soon.
- Alan Greenspan is an economic micromanaging genius!
- Google (NASDAQ:GOOG)? I had to Lycos it to figure out what they do.
- You're darn right I want options instead of a higher salary. Mullets4Peace.com is gonna let us retire by 25. Who wants to be a millionaire? This guy!
- Glass-Steagall was so Great Depression-era. We're more sophisticated now.
- Clothing from the Gap ... pretty cool. Blue dress from the Gap ... heehee.
- Home prices will never go down.
- Forget Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Netscape Navigator and WordPerfect are just too good to fail.
- Thank God this is the last time we have to hear that Prince song.
- There's at least a 10% chance the world ends tonight. Wanna go back to my place?
- The better buy is Pets.com. Does Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) really think it can sell books over the Internet?
- Martha Stewart sure is a great insider decorator.
- Have you sent your friends an e-meringue yet?
- You can do anything with Citigroup (NYSE:C). It's the Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) of banking.
- Dow 36,000? Heck yeah!
- Name recognition test: Mortgage-backed securities ... nope. Snuggie ... nope. Derivatives ... I didn't take calculus. Napster … bingo!
- I'm glad Bear Stearns didn't help bail out Long-Term Capital Management. After all, Bear Stearns didn't screw up.
- Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)? Solid fruit, but just a niche computer company left in Microsoft's wake.
- Yeah, I know about social media. I love Katie Couric, but that Bryant Gumbel sure is persnickety.
- This time it's different.
Let's hope 2009 doesn't give us as much fodder for 2019 as 1999 did for 2009. Not-so-bold prediction: It will.
If you forward this article to at least 15 people, great fortune will be in your future. Ziggy Mortenson only forwarded this to 14 people. His girlfriend promptly broke up with him, took his dog, and didn't share the million dollars Bill Gates gave her for forwarding a chain letter.
