From fantastic heights to incredible lows, this has been such a tumultuous decade in the world of economics and commerce that it’s hard to choose just what has had the largest impact. But of all the mergers, bankruptcies, rises, falls and scandals, which ones left a lasting impression and truly shaped the decade that’s drawing to an end?

How our weekly challenges will work

1. Every Monday until mid-December, we’ll reveal a new question

2. We’ll question a notable Canadian for their picks

3. You can enter your nominations – tell us why too – in our comments

4. The next Monday you can vote on the top 10 picks from our readers

5. We question a new question

Week five: What was the most vital business trend of the decade?

• Use our comments area to send us your thoughts and suggestions on business trends that shaped the decade

At the beginning of this week we showed you Peter C. Newman’s choices. Did you agree with them?

Here are some more thoughts from the Report on Business team to help jog your memory:

The dawn of free downloads

• From the arrival of Napster in 1999, to the birth of Limewire, Kazaa and BitTorrent a couple of years later, this was truly the download decade. The invention of the Apple iPod in 2001 and iTunes in 2003 forever changed the music industry and the way consumers buy and consume media.
  Read: Globe Technology series – The Download Decade

The sellout of Canada’s corporate icons

• Alcan: Bought by mining giant Rio Tinto in 2007.
• Inco: Bought by Brazil’s Vale S.A. in 2005.
• Falconbridge: Bought by miner Xstrata in 2006.
• Dofasco: Bought by steel maker ArcelorMittal in 2006.
• Stelco: Bought by United States Steel in 2007.
• Seagram: Controlling stake in entertainment division bought by Vivendi; beverage division by Pernod Ricard in 2000.
• The Bay: Bought by Lord & Taylor owner NRDC Equity Partners in 2008.
• ATI: Bought by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2006.

Oil’s meteoric climb

• It was a $17-a-barrel afterthought in 2001. Near the end of the decade it became a $150 monster that ignited the Canadian dollar and made the world re-reckon its reliance on fossil fuels.

The rise of the BRIC nations

• Goldman Sachs economists Jim O’Neill coined the acronym in 2001, predicting Brazil, Russia, India and China would rise up to dominate the world economy. Pretty excellent prediction.

China gets noticed

• Its expansion has pretty much changed the rules for global trade, inflation, commodities, currencies. And it’s only just getting started.

Canadian real estate heats up

• Who would have believed that Canadians (outside of Vancouver and Toronto, at least) would be slapping down half-a-million bucks for a house and barely flinch?

The revival of Keynesian economics

• Plus, the eclipse of monetarism, both in the academic world and among policy-makers. Governments everywhere are intervening to keep supposedly free markets functioning. Keynes lives. Milton Friedman, not so much.

RIM grows…. and grows and grows

• In August of this year, Fortune magazine named the Waterloo, Ont.-based technology firm the world’s fastest growing company. The company went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1997. Over the past decade the Blackberry maker has sold some 65 million phones to its now 28.5 million subscribers, increasing its stock market capitalization from $96 -million to $42-billion in the process, Fortune wrote. Read the tale

Do you agree with these picks?

• Use our comments area to send us your thoughts and suggestions on business trends that shaped the decade

More information: About Decoding the Decade

Week four: Which of the decade’s fashion trends should die with it?

• Read: Bonnie Fuller’s picks
• Jog your memory: A decade of fashion faux pas
• Tell us: Which fashion trend should die

Week three: What was the largest tale in Canadian sports?

• Read: Silken Laumann’s selections
• Jog your memory: A decade of moments
• Tell us: Your favourite sporting moment

Week two: Name the most vital international tale

• Read: Margaret MacMillan’s picks
• Jog your memory: Significant events
• Tell us: Get your selections into next week’s poll

Week one: Name the most underrated film of the decade

• Read: Rick Mercer’s picks
• Jog your memory: Past box office results
• Vote results: At our Decade home page