Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

There can be no doubt that the U.S.-related housing problems are the biggest business story of the year. It's not because it's in the U.S. where the story orginates that makes it so big, rather it's the worldwide impact and extent of the repercussions across the world that make the story so important.

To this day the overall impact it will have is still unknown, as investors from across the spectrum and world invested in bundled mortgage packages whose future is still in the balance in many cases. A lot more damage and revelation of the situation is expected in 2008. This was last years top business story as well, and depending on what happens next year, it could be 2009s also.

It's also not surprising to see other negative stories dominate the headlines and top the business news lists, as toy recalls, increasing oil prices and the loss in value of the U.S. dollar were all in the top ten of most top business story lists.

What surprised me, was some lists didn't even include the acquisition of Dow Jones (DJ) by News Corp. (NWS-A) as one of their top stories. That obviously has to have some bias attached to it, as there's no way you could exclude the deal and its implications from being one of the top business stories in 2007.

Some lists bundled it together with other deals like Thomson Corp. taking over competitor Reuters PLC and Sam Zell's recent closing of the Tribune Co. deal. While those were important, there's no way they could compare with the impact and interest the Dow Jones acquisition generated.

One inclusion in a list almost shocked me, as they actually called Ethanol an important story because it was booming. Again, that's wishful thinking rather than reality. The industry is actually struggling, as costs are making it prohibitive in contrast to gasoline, as milage is far less than regular gas, and distribution problems are no further in being solved than last year. It has helped some corn farmers make a lot of money though.

Other categories listed as among the top business stories are the iPhone (AAPL) launch, China and India growth, CEO firings, DJIA reaching 14,000, media consolidation, Federal Reserve moves, and food recalls.