The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

1. Disney's Lesser Evil

Not that anyone asked us, but we at the Five Dumbest Things Research Lab were a little surprised that Disney's board decided to mimic the Miss America pageant's policies for choosing replacements: When one crowned head is publicly embattled -- for a scandal or just simple incompetence -- they just wheel in the first runner-up.

It makes sense on one level. After all, what's the difference? Otherwise, though, we're a little hard-pressed to explain why Disney's board chose former Sen. George Mitchell to succeed Michael Eisner as chairman.

That move, of course, came in response to the unprecedented no-confidence vote on Eisner. As Disney announced at the close of its 5 1/2-hour shareholder meeting Wednesday, 43% of voting shareholders opposed re-electing Eisner to Disney's board. So, addressing one of investors' concerns about Eisner -- that he wielded too much power as both chairman and CEO -- the board took away one of those posts and handed it to Mitchell, its lead independent director. ...