The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

2. Exchanges, Face the Strange

As we've learned over the past few days, the NYSE's board has no idea how to manage Grasso's pay. So what kind of job will the board do in picking a successor?

A lousy one, we fear.

That's where you come in.

Yes, the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange needs your help in deciding who will succeed Dick Grasso as head of the most important stock exchange in the world.

Board member Larry Sonsini has already turned down the post of interim chairman, it's been reported. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, now at Citigroup (C Quote - Cramer on C - Stock Picks), doesn't want the job either, reports CNBC.

So who should run the NYSE? We don't know. But we bet you have a good idea.

Thus the latest in our haphazard series of Five Dumbest Things contests: "Who Should Fill Grasso's Shoes?"

If you've got a suggestion, send the name -- plus a brief explanation as to why your nominee is appropriate -- to the research lab, in care of [e-mail]. The winner will receive an autographed copy of James J. Cramer's You Got Screwed!

Entries will be judged on the basis of creativity and originality -- not plausibility. We're not interested in the obvious possibilities, like former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt. We want you to think outside of the box on this one. Way outside.

3. Viacom Draws a Blink

Like all good investors, we at the Five Dumbest Things Research Lab are never wrong. We're just early.

Today's anecdotal proof of our infallibility: An item we published three months ago about Blink 102.7, a New York radio station owned by Viacom (VIA.B Quote - Cramer on VIA.B - Stock Picks).

Back in June, you may recall, we wrote about the singular Dumbness of the radio station's advertising campaign, which touted an entertainment, news and gossip format the station adopted in April.

Each of the ads, which appeared on buses and bus shelters, comprised an entertainment news item undercut by a punch line hinting that the station had inside knowledge of what was really going on. "The rapper was caught in a heated gun battle ..." announced one typical ad, only to follow up with, "... arranged by his publicist."

Yeah, right. As if the station would have a remote chance of coming up with libel-suit-magnet scoops like that. "Talk about overpromising and underdelivering," we wrote.

The Blink folks were shocked that we would doubt them. Blink "enjoys content partnerships with Viacom siblings like Entertainment Tonight, MTV and CBS, as well as outside partners like Us Weekly and E!, giving us a wealth of celebrity news, information and gossip to share each day with our listeners," said a Blink spokesman in a statement issued in June. "These kinds of relationships give 102.7 Blink an edge."

Well, a pretty dull edge it was. See, late last week, after suffering dismal ratings, 102.7 dumped the news-and-gossip formula and laid off 20 staffers, according to the local newspapers. "It's a situation where you have to take risks," a Viacom spokesman explained this week. "A risk was taken. It was an innovative format. And it didn't work."