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Take on the Street What Wall Street and Corporate
The following report compares books using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine).
Rating: 3.32/5 from 44 reviews Arthur Levitt is a HERO not a villainOur educational establishments have short-changed us!Mr. Levitt's brilliant and direct assessment of what's wrong with Wall Street should be high on everyone's list with a dollar in a 401(k) plan or with a brokerage. For all the money spent on educating market professionals our country has apparently not been well served. In fairness that's an overstatement, but it does illustrate that for all the CPA's, MBA's, and CFA's carrying a brief-case around America, technical knowledge means very little if people cannot tell the difference between ethical and unethical, a lie and a truth, or good and bad behavior. In reality we should all perhaps strive to take several pages from Warren Buffett as well: get a hobby, buy value, mistrust Wall Street, don't gamble, choose your friends wisely, when you're on the mainline to Chicago from NY there are no side-trips in Altoona, etc... Above all else read Benjamin Graham's 'Security Analysis'. If you have any trouble understanding what it is you are buying, you should not be laying down your money. PERIOD! Every best wish to Mr. Levitt on the success of this book! Fire your Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley brokers!This book shows a lot of tricks your broker is probably using to take advantage of you. Your broker may act like you best friend but he may just be really interested in gaining your trust so he can get away with a lot of hidden fees in those ridiculously statesments they send you. It's well know that Mogan Stanley and Merrill Lynch have been But this but revals some of the methods these full service The book gives plenty . examples of how a ruthless brokers Read this book and his new book too,it's your money don't be a sucker. | ||||||||||||||||||
A lot of the criticism of this book is by people who claim to be disgruntled investors who lost big in the stock market. They seem to be taking it out on former SEC chairman Levitt. They are dead wrong!
Arthur Levitt championed the cause of small investors. He championed investors' rights against tough opposition from the Big 5 (now Big 4 sans Andersen) accounting firms, some (but not all) Wall Street financiers, etc. Levitt stuck to his principles in spite of tremendous opposition, personal insults, and threats to the SEC. The ONLY reason he lost in his attempts to defend small investors was because some members of Congress were bought off by Levitt's (and investors') enemies. This isn't just something that Levitt believes; almost everyone who has followed the issue on Wall Street and on Capitol Hill (EVEN Levitt's enemies) ALL agree that the above were the facts. In spite of the opposition, Levitt did manage to get some issues on the table (Reg FD - 'Fair Disclosure' - and trying to make accounting for derivatives as well as the co-habitation between accountants & consultants issues for public debate). All of that was accomplished by Levitt even when some in Congress threatened to cut the funding to the SEC.
Mr. Levitt's book recounts his heroic efforts, in the face of fierce opposition, to reform a flawed system. His book should be applauded for those reasons alone! On top of that, Mr. Levitt offers some sound advice to investors that would have helped to prevent many of those who have lost their shirts (and foolishly bash Levitt's book) from getting fooled into bad investment decisions.
Do I think Levitt's book is perfect or all that it claims to be? No. But if people are going to bash a book, they better back it up with facts and review a book in a thoughtful and logical manner rather than getting the facts wrong, lying, and/or going off into a world of their own.
Bottom-line: If you want the truth about Wall Street and politics, Levitt's book is a great read. If you want to criticize this book AFTER you actually read it, then please do so in a honest, factual, and logical manner rather than in a dishonest and irrational manner as some of the other reviewers have (unfortunately and unfairly) done.
Edit (11/17/02): I whole-heartedly agree with the review by Phillip Brown (Pennsylvania, .... Note (11/20/02): Apparently the rest of my edited review was deleted by Amazon thus making me look bad. Which begs the question: Why aren't they similarly editing out the 1-star reviews of this book that are clearly slanderous? I'm actually doing Amazon a favor by making sure that accurate, fair, and positive info about this book gets out there which will lead to more sales for them. The looney 1-star reviews would lead to poorer sales. So what gives?