We recently took a look at the Best & Worst of 2007 in sixteen categories and asked you to vote for your favorites, as well as sharing the reasons for your picks and any other contenders we may have overlooked. And voting is off to a strong start, with more than 100,000 votes in each category so far.

Some categories have shaped up to be close races. Chuck Prince, Bill Ford, and Bob Nardelli each have a little less than a third of the vote for Best CEO Departure of the Year. Britney Spears and Michael Vick are neck and neck as the Celebrity Most Likely to Lose It All, while Lindsey Lohan's relatively low profile recently has garnered her just 6 percent of that vote. In the Most Shameless Attempt at Cashing in on '15 Minutes', Sanjaya Malakar has a slim lead over Howard K. Stern/Larry Birkhead, but poor Chris "Leave Britney Alone!" Crocker has gotten no respect with a mere 6 percent of the vote. McDonald's has a small lead as the Hottest Chain Restaurant, thought Chipotle isn't far behind with more than a quarter of the vote. And while the iPhone has the lead now as the Hottest Gadget of the Year, it and the Nintendo Wii have been trading places as the front runner.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and readers have chosen Martha Stewart as the most annoying money personality of the year. Let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

In last year's Best & Worst in Money awards, Donald Trump was the easy victor in the Most Annoying Money Expert category, securing 44% of the votes, more than twice as much as Suze Orman, Jim Cramer, or Mark Cuban. Trump won by such a landslide that this year we decided to take him out of the running, giving some new personalities a shot at the prize.

So, let's take a look at the contestants for this year's Donald Trump Honorary Most Annoying Money Personality contest:

Maria Bartiromo, CNBC's famed "Money Honey," isn't looking so sweet and spunky these days. She now seems a touch vampish as the apparent centerpiece in a Citigroup scandal that led to the ouster of exec Todd Thomson. Thomson might have earned the CEO spot recently vacated by Chuck Prince if he hadn't offered Bartiromo a spot on a Citi jet to fly to Asia to speak to customers.

Maria's journalistic ethics were called into question for accepting the junket, but CNBC, which nets plenty of advertising from Citi, glossed over the scandal. Criticism of Maria, however, helped raise the profile of CNBC's new sweetheart, Erin Burnett. In September, AOL's Money Face-Off found them virtually neck-and-neck among voters.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and readers have chosen old favorite McDonald's as the hottest restaurant chain of the year. Let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

America might as well change its tagline to "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Fast Food." Are we really "brave" any more? Our collective culinary adventures seem to start and end at chipotle peppers. Chipotle, that smokey hot chile whose provenance is deeply American and whose name is synonymous with a whole type of cuisine; in fact, one of the hottest restaurants in the country is named for the spicy stuff.

But it is not Chipotle that is making the splashiest headlines this year; no, it's the oldest and favorite-est of them all, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD). Just take a look at the company's stock over the past year ... three years ... five years ... the charts read like an American Investment Dream success story. The returns, respectively: 41%, 89.6%, 213.4% seem mystical. Is this the same company whose menu items were flopping and service was embarassing, only a few years ago?

It's not. The new McDonald's is the one whose coffee has been deemed better than Starbucks', and who is rolling out lattes and iced coffees to its outlets nationwide next quarter. With the promise of breakfast all day, a third-pounder burger, and a big push into the market of Starbucks-style loiterers (what with wi-fi and better seating planned), McDonald's just keeps getting hotter and hotter.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and readers have chosen globalization as the most overused buzzword of the year. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

We all have our pet peeves in the evolution of language. Mine is the misuse of "quality" as an adjective, as in -- say, "that's a quality mullet you have there!" Quality is a scale of measurement, people, not a unit of measure.

That being said (which should have made the list), we have a quality set of annoying buzzwords as our candidates for the most overused in 2007.

#1. Take that offline; as in, quit embarrassing yourselves by engaging in an IM flame-war and solve your problems in a face-to-face slap-off. We would prefer that those who use the term "take that offline," would, um, take it offline.

#2. Globalization. Also flat earth, global integration, global supply chain, etc. We get it that we put on pants made in Thailand, shoes from China, a shirt from India, get in our car made in Romania, and drive to our office to work for a Belgian company selling widgets to Indonesia. No mas, por favor!

This post is part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and readers have chosen the Cadillac CTS as the hottest automobile of the year. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

What is it about a car that makes it "hot" for you? Is it slinky lines, European styling and a deep throaty growl? Perhaps you prefer a ride with all the luxury appointments: leather, navigation, DVD players, and surround sound. Are you the kind of driver that seeks out a pavement-ripping roadster with more horsepower per pound than a F-1 formula racer, or are you more into the touring feel? Whatever your criteria for choosing a hot car, we're asking for your opinions on the following four vehicles, and we like to know which one you'd choose as Hottest Car of the Year for 2007.

There is a bit of a shuffle these days in regard to when manufacturers release their year models, so for comparison I am using what I believe is the latest available production model for each of the four competitors. Please feel free to consider more than just one model year as you make your judgment. I want to know which vehicle make and model you think owns the road.

This post was part of the AOL Money & Finance Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen Rosie O'Donnell's war of words with Donald Trump and others as the dumbest celebrity feud of the year. Be sure and let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

Back in the day of the (fictional) Capulets and Montegues or the (real) Hatfields and McCoys, "feuds" were not something to be taken lightly. They separated men from boys and resulted in certain bloodshed. These days, tabloids will report on a new "celebrity feud" each week, as our nation's most rich and famous lash out at one another in the press or on live television.

Sometimes, there are justified reasons for unrest among pop culture's elite ... a cuckolding, perhaps, or a vicious custody battle (I blame Alec Baldwin's recent poor judgment on stress, but maybe he gets off lightly in my book because he's so brilliant on 30 Rock). At any rate, here's some of the most high-profile fights that took center stage in 2007.

The American public twice served as judge and jury for Rosie O'Donnell this year. Late last year, the comedienne found herself in a war of words with "The Donald" (Trump), after O'Donnell criticized the billionaire's handling of a scandal involving the Miss USA Pageant, of which Trump holds the rights. Name-calling and mudslinging ensued, and O'Donnell colleague Barbara Walters caught some shrapnel. Months later, on the May 23 episode of The View -- on which the liberally minded Rosie served as one of four co-hosts -- she got into a heated (split-screen!) debate with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the "conservative" member of the hosting panel. Tempers flared and Rosie ultimately walked out on her contract with the program, which was set to expire a few months later anyway. Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd have since picked up hosting duties.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen ExxonMobil as the most hated company of the year. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

Trying to discuss the Most Hated Companies is not easy. There are so many to choose from that if we left the subject wide open it would fill a novel. The four companies that made our list are all substantial in size and that alone brings much criticism. These four companies and their stocks are all broadly covered by Wall Street and business journals everywhere. We at BloggingStocks have written dozens of stories about them in just the past year alone. Each time we do, we find that our readers have plenty to vent about, so here we are giving you all one more chance.

Three of the four stocks here have not paid off for shareholders, and that is bound to start the ranting and raving. All of them have created some consumer backlash, and even fury. Some people hate the management. But management hating is not the problem at the worlds largest company, Exxon Mobil, since it is up about 200% in the past five years.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen the weak dollar and rising oil and gold prices as the money story of the year. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

As we approach the end of 2007, we now have a really tough question to answer. What is the Money Story of 2007? What are the candidates?

The Boom and Bust in Private Equity Buyouts

As we entered 2007, no one could imagine the activity with private equity firms around the world. Private equity firms were supposed to be the new Masters of the Universe, ushering in a new Gilded Age not seen since 1920s. We saw this with the initial public offering of the Blackstone Group, the premiere private equity group. This was followed by a series of public and semi-public offerings by other organizations, such as Apollo Group.

However, the new Roaring '20s was relatively short-lived with the credit crunch. This caused most merger activity, including corporate buyouts, to come to grinding halt. Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) now trades substantially below its high price. Who could guess that private equity would experience a boom and bust all in the same year? However, before you dismiss private equity as an element of the past, remember that most of these firms still have substantial cash available ready to invest when conditions are ripe.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen Apple's iPhone as the hottest gadget of the year. Be sure and let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

2007 was definitely the year of the gadget. Every year, personal electronics get sleeker, attain more cutting-edge technology and functionality, and make their way into the the pockets and homes of millions of consumers. So, let's decide on which one was the biggest hitter this year, shall we?

First up, the Apple iPhone. Arguable the largest and most anticipated cell phone launch in history was in the news constantly form its January announcement until its June launch with partner AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: APPL) shined again as a marketing machine and hyped the iPhone as much as it could while tech blogs and the news media seemed to have a lust for the device months before it ever hit a single hand. What the iPhone lacked in features it made up for in style and user experience. The device sold more than a million units in the first three months it was sold, and has helped Apple maintain its aura as the coolest tech company on the planet this year.

Next, we have the Nintendo Wii. This $250 gaming system is the size of a large hardback book but has great graphics and a whole new way to play games. It's not nearly as cutting edge as the Sony PlayStation 3 or Microsoft Xbox 360, but that's not what it's about. The Wii was meant for everyone (not just gamers), and the way it makes players physically interact with games has been hailed as brilliant. Consumers think so too, as the Wii has outsold the Xbox 360 almost every single month in 2007, and is way ahead of the more expensive PlayStation 3 in unit sales as well.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. Voting has now closed and readers have chosen rising fuel prices as the most worrisome consumer trend. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

The most Worrisome Consumer Trend of 2007 is ... whichever one you choose. The following is my analysis of four candidates -- ranging from can't sleep at night to minor complaint:

• China product recalls. 30 million Chinese products -- many of them toys -- have been recalled in the last several months. With the holiday shopping season in full swing, this has to be among the most worrisome consumer trends. It's not easy to find out if a product is made in China. This list of U.S. made toys might help, and this list of Made in America products might also be useful.
• Subprime and mortgage meltdown. The cost to society of the subprime mortgage meltdown could be as high as $4 trillion. Two million people are expected to lose their homes to foreclosure by the end of 2008. If you are one of these people, this trend is definitely costing you sleep. And since there's no way of knowing how widespread the damage will be, everyone in the world should be worrying about this one.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen Google Inc. as the company of the year. Be sure and let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

Corporate America, the markets, and Wall Street are lumbering through a so-so year -- one likely to be characterized by mediocre U.S. GDP and earnings performance, along with ample portions of market volatility.

To be sure, no one will confuse 2007 with a peak year during the "Roaring '20s" or even the "Roaring '90s." Still, there were several standout performances, which we summarize in our "Company of the Year" award.

Facebook

Facebook deserves an honorable mention. The online directory shows considerable promise as an online community and networking device. Provided information is kept confidential and is not released or sold to unauthorized third parties, the business model can serve as another meeting room for groups that might not otherwise be able to meet for geographic or other reasons.

This post was part of the AOL Money & Finance Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen the Dubai as the breakout city of the year. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

What are breakout cities? Cities that seemed to pop up in news stories with uncommon frequency, that have developed a cachet, that appear on the itinerary of early adopters. For your consideration here are four outstanding, very different candidates for this honor. Which whets your travel appetite?

Dubai City, U.A.E.
Nothing helps build a city quicker than petrodollars and a monarchy devoted to world-class projects. Dubai has all of that and more. The city that calls itself the "City Built For Tourism" is known as the home of the world's largest free-standing hotel, the Burj Al Arab. This ultra-ultra-luxury, 1,000-ft. tall hotel with a profile evoking billowing sails has quickly become the symbol of Dubai.

Under the vision of the ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai has used its free-trade zone status to also develop into a world center for business. Having the world's largest manmade harbor and an airline that serves as a hub for the Persian Gulf region (with a new one under construction) helps, too. Dubai's acceptance of other culture's mores has helped turn it into a popular tourism destination, as well.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and readers have chosen Sanjaya Malakar as the most shameless attempt to cash in on the proverbial 15 minutes of fame. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

When Andy Warhol observed nearly 40 years ago that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes," the man wasn't kidding. While the toe-headed artist couldn't have predicted the rise of the internet or reality television in 1968, this pair of media outlets now enables anyone with a webcam and a dream to put themselves on the map for one brief shining moment (or even several). Below are some of the folks we hated to love as they flitted across the pop-culture radar this year.

For about six weeks or so, the main topic of discussion at the nation's water coolers was the hairdo of a mild-mannered 17-year old. Sanjaya Malakar -- a contestant on News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) FOX Network's American Idol -- divided a nation with his questionable talent and his ever-changing coiffure. Howard Stern launched a campaign, the goal of which was to discredit the show with a Sanjaya victory. Sanjaya took it all in stride ... the tongue-lashings from Simon Cowell, the hatred from America's bloggers, the worldwide attention. But underneath it all, he was a sensitive teenaged boy, one who couldn't quite blink back the tears when he was mercifully ousted from the competition. From that point on, the Idol season wasn't the same. I barely remember who won.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007. Voting has now closed and, in a close race, readers have chosen Chuck Prince as the best CEO departure of the year. Let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

When looking back at 2007, there were some larger-than-life CEO departures that semi-rocked the business world and brought some investors to the realization of over-the-top compensation yet again. Let's look at a few and then you can decide the winner. Sound good?

First up comes Bill Ford, Jr., from the automotive industry. Under Ford's leadership, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) lost its way in terms of correctly forecasting what kind of vehicles customers actually wanted, in addition to becoming horribly leveraged. As soon as gas prices began shooting up, Ford Motor started spiraling down. Long-time Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) executive Alan Mulally was brought in to replace Ford as the automaker's CEO just in the nick of time. Ford Motor's expected profitability date with Ford now gone: 2009.

How about Bob Nardelli, formerly CEO of Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD)? Nardelli made global headlines by making tens of millions while leading Home Depot shares to the basement and apparently making all kinds of bad decisions that finally led to his ouster this year. On top of that, his severance package made a Brad Pitt paycheck seem like pennies, and Home Depot shareholders paid for it. Did Home Depot stakeholders get a voice in this corporate travesty? A small one, perhaps.