Fortune recently published its 21 Dumbest in Business 2008 which had a number of doozies that weren’t aerospace, automotive, or bailout related.

The following are great examples of what not-to-do if you’re responsible and spend-conscious:

• 999.99 for a Screensaver
  The Apple App Store briefly listed an app called “I Am Rich” that was nothing but a screen-saver whose sole feature was a glowing red jewel. Apparently, eight suckers bought it before Apple quietly removed the application.
• “Favors” for Oil
  The Department of Interior, responsible for granting leases for energy exploration and production in federal waters, is caught with its pants down. It seems that staff were accepting gifts, engaging in illegal drug use, and having intimate relations with employees of some of the oil companies they were supposed to be overseeing.
• Microsoft offers 44.6B for a 27.7B Company called Yahoo
  Fortunately for Microsoft, Yahoo chief Jerry Yang decides to be extremely intransigent, and the deal falls through … along with his job.
• Bloomberg publishes Steve Jobs’ Obituary
  Despite a well-publicized brush with pancreatic cancer, Steve Jobs is still very much alive and kicking.

Of course, if you really want to be smart, don’t e-mail your employees telling them that their jobs might be in peril and how their managers will be informing them of the news if you’re not quite ready to send your employees packing, like Carat did.