Wow, you think as Greater Des Moines walks toward you at a party; that is one nice-looking little city. But before you can start dishing out compliments, she whispers in your ear: “This is embarrassing, but I’m having some money problems. Can you loan me a few dollars until I get things turned around?”

It was like that in 2010.

When the richest folks in the metro area struggle to keep their golf course going, and some of our leading business people fall behind on the taxes at their glitzy lifestyle center, you know that the city’s Golden Age has been delayed.

We soldiered on, though, making some encouraging progress here and there while awaiting the next bad news. Our civic leaders boasted about job-retention efforts, but it was hard to hear over the sound of sobbing workers cleaning out their desks.

Principal Financial Group Inc. announced that it would exit the health insurance business, causing a loss of jobs. Wells Fargo Financial announced a big cut in jobs, too.

Coincidentally, a new law allowed Iowa breweries to produce and sell beers with as much as 12 percent alcohol content. Many laid-off employees said that sounded pretty good to them.

In downtown Des Moines, a Wisconsin developer moved forward on a plan to turn the Younkers Building into apartments, and Minneapolis developer George Sherman added apartments with a warehouse rehab and new construction. Inspired by these examples, some Des Moines developers sketched out plans of their own on the folders holding their bankruptcy documents.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield completed a headquarters building that makes you wish you were getting into the health insurance business. Ordinary citizens are allowed to glance at it for free, but a steady gaze costs $5.

Wellmark also announced that only nonsmokers will be considered as employees. The company took no official stand on obesity, but did issue strict new staff guidelines on waddling.

The state of Iowa offered an early retirement program, and about 10 percent of its employees immediately became wedged in the exit doors. They were just so eager to help whip this stubborn budget problem.

That task now falls to Gov.-elect Terry Branstad, who took a pay cut to make a career switch. Instead of presiding over a rising, prosperous medical school with relatively few critics, he will govern a state with serious growth obstacles in the midst of a lingering economic malaise. In a related development, Chris Branstad announced the results of her research project about trying to control a person’s actions by whispering in his ear while he sleeps. She said it doesn’t appear to work.

One of the year’s highlights was the regular appearance of Greater Des Moines on “best cities” lists. Recently, Des Moines was proclaimed by CNBC as one of the best cities to move to, and we swelled with pride. Then we noticed that Buffalo, N.Y., was also on the list. The swelling subsided.

As the end of the year drew near, debate erupted about faculty sabbaticals at our state universities. Proponents of the practice said some sabbaticals produce research that brings millions of dollars to the schools. Nitpicking opponents questioned the value of studying billiards in the Philippines. Finally, English professors banded together and threatened to stop considering the social implications of “Beowulf.” The Iowa Board of Regents buckled under this pressure, approving all sabbatical requests and giving the other faculty members an extra 15 minutes for lunch.

Here at the Business Record, a three-year adventure in outside ownership ended in bankruptcy for those guys and a return to our original boss, Connie Wimer. Now I wish I had been nicer to her during the interim. Thanks to a rigorous “re-education” program, I have come to understand that putting thumbtacks on her chair really was uncalled for.

Jim Pollock is the editor of the Des Moines Business Record. He can be reached by e-mail at jimpollock@bpcdm.com