Darwinism in the Time of Recession

It's interesting to juxtapose who's failing because of bad luck with who's failing because of bad business. Some of the most depressing news, upon closer inspection, seems less like a tragedy and more like a fait accompli. AT&T lost home phone customers? In 2009? Who could imagine that, blame the recession! Sprint , a phone carrier long scorned and out of touch, isn't doing well and is continuing to eliminate structual ineffieicencies? I'm shocked. I had such high hopes for the new owner of NexTel, home of the stunningly annoying and increasingly obselete "beep-beep".

The human price always sucks. And our unemployment lines and careerbuilder.coms don't have much more room. But maybe, these companies are suffering from a lack of innovation and customer insight, not from a run in with mark to market trading.