2008 "Worst Year" In Fortune 500 History

(CBS)  It was 1955, the year Disneyland opened and Ray Kroc sold his first hamburger. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born that year.

And it was in 1955 that Fortune magazine published the very first Fortune 500 list.

It's an annual compilation of America's 500 largest companies, its changing roster reflecting the current economic climate.

"Everything that happens in business in the United States shows up in one way or another in the 500," said Carol Loomis, Fortune's senior editor-at-large. "It's a mirror to the economy."

Since 1955, more than 2,000 companies have earned a spot on the list, but in 55 years only three have achieved the number one slot: General Motors, ExxonMobil and Wal-Mart.

Originally, the list only included industrial corporations. The top 10 in 1955 included DuPont, U.S. Steel and Gulf Oil. But by 1995 it was clear that America had shifted to a service economy, and corporations like AT&T and financial giants like Citicorp were included.

"It's amazing how many companies that are today on the list didn't even exist when we first started the list," said Loomis ¡ companies like Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Costco and Google.

… And that brings us to a first-look at THIS year's list, which we're pleased to reveal this morning with thanks to our friends at Fortune Magazine.

Read it ... and weep.

2008 was the worst year in the history of the Fortune 500 for America's largest companies.

From $645 billion in profits in 2007, profits dropped this year to just $98.9 billion - an 84.7 percent decline!

Records were broken: Eleven of the top 25 largest corporate losses in list history took place last year.

The biggest loser of them all: Insurance giant AIG. The company posted a $99.3 billion loss. But it's still on the list ("too big to fail" indeed!). It's ranked at number 245, down from number 13 just one year earlier.

Thirty-eight companies disappeared from the list altogether. Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers may be no surprise, but it was also "last call" for brewer Anheuser Busch.

And the bubble burst for gum maker William Wrigley Jr.

… Making room for fashionable newcomers like Polo Ralph Lauren. And (perhaps a sign of our need for retail therapy) Visa and Mastercard are also Fortune first-timers.

Of course, they rank far behind ExxonMobil which, boosted by higher gas prices, motored past Wal-Mart to arrive at the coveted number one spot.

Speaking of life at the top, 15 women ran Fortune 500 companies in 2008m an all-time high.

They're among the ranks of 25.6 million Americans working (or, who used to work!) for the nation's largest companies.

That's one out of every six of us.

This year's Top 20 companies, with rank, revenues and profits, +/- (in millions) are:

1. Exxon Mobil (442,851.0; 45,220.0)
2. Wal-Mart Stores (405,607.0; 13,400.0)
3. Chevron (263,159.0; 23,931.0)
4. ConocoPhillips (230,764.0; -16,998.0)
5. General Electric (183,207.0; 17,410.0)
6. General Motors (148,979.0; -30,860.0)
7. Ford Motor (146,277.0; -14,672.0)
8. AT&T (124,028.0; 12,867.0)
9. Hewlett-Packard (118,364.0; 8,329.0)
10. Valero Energy (118,298.0; -1,131.0)
11. Bank of America Corp. (113,106.0; 4,008.0)
12. Citigroup (112,372.0; -27,684.0)
13. Berkshire Hathaway (107,786.0; 4,994.0)
14. International Business Machines (103,630.0; 12,334.0)
15. McKesson (101,703.0; 990.0)
16. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (101,491.0; 5,605.0)
17. Verizon Communications (97,354.0; 6,428.0)
18. Cardinal Health (91,091.4; 1,300.6)
19. CVS Caremark (87,471.9; 3,212.1)
20. Procter & Gamble (83,503.0; 12,075.0)



The full details of this year's Fortune 500, appearing in the May 4 issue of Fortune Magazine, can be found on their Web site.

[hypnotoad72]

Bush tanked the economy, thats pretty much a general consensus. I don't think he vetoed a spending bill the whole time he was in office. That boy likes to take care of his friends.....
Posted by at 2:35 AM : Apr 20, 2009
--------------

Agreed. And now President Obama has to have the government take up the slack because companies are laying off workers and anyone being reemployed is likely "underemployed" (e.g. part time, no benefits, etc) -- funny how all the republicans the last 8.25 years said nothing about Bush's spending, but in comes Obama and everybody throws a big tantrum - without bothering to look at facts. Then again, which president said "facts are useless things"? That's right, Bush II's idol: Ronald Reagan. And I'm not sure even Reagan would have approved of Bush II's antics.

If only it was 1981 again. Things seemed more optimistic.

[lucytomato]

Thirty-eight companies disappeared from the list altogether.
2008,em , 1929--similar ,God bless America ,Hopefully ,This bad time will pass over soon.

[dahizzle]

Bush tanked the economy, thats pretty much a general consensus. I don't think he vetoed a spending bill the whole time he was in office. That boy likes to take care of his friends.....

[lauryl]

When I went to the Fortune website it had different rankings. That's strange...

[glidescube]

I know it's been said already but the worst year was brought to you by the worst President ever.

Obama has inherited the economy from hell and this bail out was needed to stabilize the banks.

Giving more tax breaks to the rich as the Reps are suggesting simply wont work in this current situation. What good will it do to give a rich shop keeper a tax break if all his customers are out of money? Put the money into the pockets of Joe the plumbers customers and they will have the wherewithal to hire Joe to fix the pipes.

Now I realize that the stimulus packages have been unpopular but then again so is chemotherapy. But when you have cancer like this economy has right now the unpopular cures are sometimes the only option.

[rave_on3]

Obama is the worst president in 100 years. He will reduce us all to debt slaves for eternity.
Posted by weedapeapl at 5:56 PM : Apr 19, 2009

Here's my prediction:

If the result is worse - they'll blame Bush.

If the result is better - they'll give credit to Obama.
Posted by weedapeapl at 6:20 PM : Apr 19, 2009

Sounds like you see a glimmer of hope. By that I mean hoping your assessment of Obama is on point so you can somehow reap some validation for backing the wrong (even worse) horse.

[omega39-2009]

It is funny to me, what the Republicans have done to themselves.

They wanted to hog as big a piece of America's pie just for themselves as they could; they wanted workers who would be far more pressed for a job and so would work cheaper and be more malleable.

So they began playing with the tax laws and foisted free trade upon America. Consequently, America's inequality curve shifted to the level of 1929.

And what happened? They had to run the economy on credit, in order to make it run at all - and they had to drive even that with a false-to-the-point-of-fraudulent housing bubble.

And the Republicans couldn't even keep themselves honest enough to keep the scam going - they had to start writing bad checks on the bad mortgages. Then, just to ensure the whole thing blew up, the Republicans turned a blind eye to the oil companies and the hedge funds manipulating the price of oil - which permitted a price surge sharp enough to burst the rotten fruit of their labors.

Greedy beggers, Republicans - and stupid in their greed. Too stupid to understand that societies and economies are like pyraminds; you keep whacking away at the foundation stones, and it WILL fall over.
Posted by ibsteve2u

And on a dark moonless night, if you listen closely as the warm breeze rustles through the cottonwoods. You can almost here the profound musings of a couple of "mavericks" as they sing their sea shanties about the economy needing less taxes and less regulation or they consider the great things that treasury secretary Gramm could have done for us.

[ibsteve2u]

It is funny to me, what the Republicans have done to themselves.

They wanted to hog as big a piece of America's pie just for themselves as they could; they wanted workers who would be far more pressed for a job and so would work cheaper and be more malleable.

So they began playing with the tax laws and foisted free trade upon America. Consequently, America's inequality curve shifted to the level of 1929.

And what happened? They had to run the economy on credit, in order to make it run at all - and they had to drive even that with a false-to-the-point-of-fraudulent housing bubble.

And the Republicans couldn't even keep themselves honest enough to keep the scam going - they had to start writing bad checks on the bad mortgages. Then, just to ensure the whole thing blew up, the Republicans turned a blind eye to the oil companies and the hedge funds manipulating the price of oil - which permitted a price surge sharp enough to burst the rotten fruit of their labors.

Greedy beggers, Republicans - and stupid in their greed. Too stupid to understand that societies and economies are like pyraminds; you keep whacking away at the foundation stones, and it WILL fall over.

[weedapeapl]

Wait until next year.
Posted by searingtruth at 6:06 PM : Apr 19, 2009

Here's my prediction:

If the result is worse - they'll blame Bush.

If the result is better - they'll give credit to Obama.

[searingtruth]

Wait until next year.
ST


"We became victims of our own crime."
SearingTruth, 2002

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