2008: Best of Times, Worst of Times

Dec. 22, 2008— -- Looking back, 2008 was truly the best of times and the worst of times. It was a year of extremes; of the highest highs and the lowest lows.

As usual, nature defined loss on an epic scale. An earthquake in China killed 50,000 people in the spring, and a cyclone in Myanmar swept away another 75,000 lives.

Manmade tragedies such as the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, carried their own special sting. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continued through another calendar year.

And in the recession-hit United States, people from Wall Street to Main Street were all suffering what William Shakespeare might have called the slings and arrows of an outrageous lost fortune.

President George W. Bush diagnosed the crisis as a hangover when he was caught on tape by a cell phone camera.

"Wall Street got drunk," he said. "It got drunk and, now, it's got a hangover."

Homes, wealth, jobs and confidence were lost. The government bailed out U.S. financial institutions to the tune of $700 billion.

This month, investor Bernard Madoff was accused of the largest fraud in U.S. history.

At least one "chairman of the board" got it right this year. Frank Sinatra wrote, "That's life ... riding high in April, shot down in May." Shot down, like former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned amid a prostitution scandal this year.

"In the past few days, I've begun to atone for my private failings with my wife Silda, my children and my entire family," he said in a March news conference announcing his resignation.