The WORST Corporate Failure in 2009 – Revealed! (Urgent Slideshow)

The Daily Reckoning’s Unofficial, Unauthorized Financial Darwin Awards recognizes the efforts of companies that, through dedication to idiocy, ended their own lives.

When you consider the state of the modern American economy, the phrase “survival of the fittest” hardly springs to mind…

Instead, we think of “too big to fail” and “zombie bank.” We think of Band-Aid fixes. Borrowing earnings from the future. And assorted other tricks used by economists and politicians. All designed to ensure the survival of the weakest…at the expense of the fittest.

AIG, for instance, remains a mass of inefficiency, even after hundreds of billions in taxpayer-funded infusions. Flagship automotive companies still suckle desperately on Washington DC’s nanny-state teat.

Thankfully, not all acts of corporate stupidity are noticed by Big Brother. Some reckless companies – like Lehman Bros. -- are actually, GULP, “allowed” to fail.

Here at The Daily Reckoning, we like to pay homage to those institutions kind enough to remove themselves from the corporate gene pool. We are all better off without bankers who can’t count and automakers that can’t compete. It’s time to stand by the tar pit to cheer their timely demise.

To celebrate, we put together this slideshow of nominations, and the grand award winner, for this year’s Daily Reckoning’s Unofficial, Unauthorized Financial Darwin Awards. Through Kamikaze-like dedication to self-destruction or a stubborn refusal to change with the times, these companies automatically removed themselves from the gene pool…

Hundreds of readers wrote in -- from all over the world -- with their personal nominations for this year’s award. Much as we’d like to give them all their due recognition, we had to cull the field a bit.

To find out who got the grand dumb-dumb award, check out the slideshow below…