Welcome to the 1st annual Recessies!! Recessioned is proud to honor those who made the recession so unique and special. We invite you to join us in welcoming the institutions and the people that took our breath – and our savings – away in 2008.

Vote now and tune in on Tuesday, March 3rd17th for the results of the coveted Recessies. All voting members are eligible for official Recessies swag bag raffle prizes. We’ve chosen four nominees in each category for your consideration and the opportunity for you to suggest your own.

(Results authenticated by Arthur Andersen Accounting - 2003 Recessie winner)


And the nominees are:

1. Best Dramatic Financial Collapse

For outstanding performance by an institution

Lehman Brothers

AIG

The Big 3 Automakers

Citigroup

Other:  

2. Best Recession in a Foreign Language

A record number of countries submitted recessions this year

Iceland: "Bankruptcy, right ahead”

China: Now top holder of US debt. Good luck with that!

UK: Not a foreign language, but a newly affordable currency

Dubai: Once a Mecca built on a desert, now just deserted

Other:  

3. Best Performance by an Executive

The following nominees distinguished themselves among this year's fiercest competition

Chris Cox of SEC

Joe Cassano of AIG

Frank Raines of Fannie Mae

Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers

Other:  

4. Best Original Material

For scripts born completely out of the imagination

Phil Gramm: "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession. We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."

Alan Greenspan: "Improvements in lending practices driven by information technology have enabled lenders to reach out to households with previously unrecognized borrowing capacities."

George W. Bush: "One of the very difficult parts of the decision I made on the financial crisis was to use hardworking people's money to help prevent there to be a crisis."

David Lereah : Author of Book, "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Burst”

Other:  

5. Best Use of Bailout Money

The academy would like to remind you that taxes are due April 15th

Citigroup: $50 million corporate jet

Merril Lynch (John Thain): $1.1 million office redecoration

Bank of America: 5-day carnival "Super Bowl Fun Fest"

Citigroup (Sandy Weil): took company jet to fly family to a $12,000 resort in Mexico

Other:  

6. Recessies Special Achievement Award

This year's Honorary Award goes to Bernard Madoff for his tireless and incalculable contribution to Ponzi schemes worldwide.

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