Loss in terms of money or efforts. Could be recent or ancient.

  • Cobrachickenwing@lemmy.ca
    ·
    1 year ago

    Scotland trying to colonize the Darien gap It bankrupted Scotland and forced the union of England and Scotland to be the UK.

  • ActualShark@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    ·
    1 year ago

    China's Four Pests campaign is a great example. As the campaign says, China had a bit of a pest problem. One of these particular pests was the sparrow. The government decided it would be a great idea to launch an "exterminate sparrows" campaign. The only problem was sparrows ate other pests such as bedbugs and locusts.

    In short, they sucessfully curbed the "sparrow problem" and replaced it with a "locusts and bedbugs problem". This ultimately upset the ecological balance and further lowered the rice yields. It was a complete disaster

    • Bady@lemmy.ml
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      I agree, but unlike usual blunders this was very much planned!

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Once the campaigns were underway, yes. But the opportunity came from a huge blunder by David Cameron. He called the referendum expecting an easy win for the remain side that would silence the anti-EU faction in his party and shore up his position as PM. Instead, the anti-EU faction won, prompting his own resignation and causing damage to the UK's economy, a loss of global influence, the loss of British people's right to live and work in the EU, and reopening difficult issues in Northern Ireland that had been laid to rest for years. It also arguably sped up the Conservative Party's lurch to the right and its embrace of UKIP-like policies, disempowering Conservative moderates and leading to the spiral of ever less competent governments we have seen since then. In particular, Boris Johnson's rise was a direct result of post-referendum power games among Conservative politicians.

  • yads@lemmy.ca
    ·
    1 year ago

    Target's failed expansion into Canada. It's taught as a case study on what not to do in business schools now.

    • Bady@lemmy.ml
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for sharing, I remember this from a documentary on Steve Jobs.

    • Bady@lemmy.ml
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      At least something we can all cheer about :)

      This also reminds me of Yahoo turning down the offer to buy Google in their early stage! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-yahoo-turned-down-1-132805083.html

  • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
    ·
    1 year ago

    The Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes and his friends were about to blow up parliament, and on the week it was supposed to happen, one of his accomplices sent a letter to a noble. In what was probably the worst example of "asking for a friend" in history, it asked "hypothetically, what would happen if someone went into the basement and blew up parliament". The noble did what nobody expected he would do and, get this, responded to the letter. People searched the palace basement and found Guy Fawkes, he was arrested and killed, and we have Guy Fawkes Day. The reason this led to a loss is because the king of England at the time used it as an excuse to persecute Catholics and make the holiday which is used as a taunt.

  • WtfEvenIsExistence3️@reddthat.com
    ·
    1 year ago

    Does personal blunders count? Because I changed my Bitwarden password and now I'm locked out of all my accounts.

    For details: https://reddthat.com/post/1115518

  • traveler01@lemdro.id
    ·
    1 year ago

    Pretty much anything the government in my country does results in a huge loss of state funds lol

  • lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Cambium stock recently dropped to $10 after the CEO stepped down during their call. A large part of their problems are likely due to the pandemic shortages catching up.

    But a high failure rate on their new line of switches, and high prices while starlink eats their lunch isn't helping.

    Edit: Used to be over $50.

  • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Long-Term Capital Management was a hedge fund founded in 1994 that had notable academics and Nobel Prize winners on its board. It was very successful in the early years (while critics warned of the risks) and eventually collapsed in 1998, losing $4.6 billion in a matter of months due to its leverage and impacts of currency crises. The US government stepped in to shore up the financial system. It's taught as a case study in how a strategy can post impressive returns but quickly turn into a wipeout.