Couldn't Have Happened to a More Deserving Airline

Matt Welch | September 9, 2008

From the Washington Post:

A six-year-old article mistakenly seen by Bloomberg financial news users yesterday reported the bankruptcy of United Airlines and triggered a massive sell-off that nearly obliterated the company's stock in a matter of minutes.

Link via Wonkette.

Comments

|9.9.08 @ 9:40AM|#

Speculators and big brokerages causing panics because they can't read a date on an article is a clear instance of market failure. The federal government needs to seize control of all news organizations and institute a standardized font size and placement for correct dating.

JMR|9.9.08 @ 9:43AM|#

Or maybe "Wouldn't have been much of a surprise!"

ed|9.9.08 @ 9:44AM|#

Attention all NORAD personnel. Listen to me very carefully.
Do not Google "incoming Russian ICBMs." That is all.

|9.9.08 @ 9:44AM|#

I don't see any mention of this at CNN. Are you pulling our collective leg?

|9.9.08 @ 9:45AM|#

Hee hee, this is what's called market sentiment.

I dream of the day every single goddamn analyst is unemployed from the major news networks and back where they belong, devining people's futures from pig intestines.

Other Matt|9.9.08 @ 9:50AM|#

Now if it were US Airways, that would actually be rather cool. They seem to have moral equivalency "issues", and would deserve such a treatment. United, not so much.

The Extispicator|9.9.08 @ 9:51AM|#

Hey, don't mock my future divination technique! It's not as easy as it looks. Everyone focuses on the liver ... like that's the only organ.

|9.9.08 @ 9:54AM|#

It's a conspiracy- round up the short sellers!

Sandy|9.9.08 @ 10:25AM|#

I'd have to agree with Other Matt: US Airways is the more deserving airline.

Nick|9.9.08 @ 12:41PM|#

Does that mean that when everyone realizes that it is false, everyone will buy it back? Is now a good time to be investing in United Airlines?

ed|9.9.08 @ 12:57PM|#

Everyone did buy it back, the same day.
It's trading only a little lower than before the fiasco, last time I looked.

Ride Fast|9.9.08 @ 1:04PM|#

Oh, that's funny as hell. Millions of investors lose money because the MSM doesn't fact check.

The airline didn't lose any money, just little people mostly.

Paul|9.9.08 @ 2:53PM|#

Damn, a serious missed opportunity to make a freakin' mint. Imagine the profits if you bought at the low, and then held while the stock regained its equilibrium?