Take on the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don't Want You to Know

Investors today are fed lies and distortions while being exploited and neglected. In the wake of the last decade's rush to invest by millions of households and Wall Street's obsession with short-term performance, a culture of gamesmanship has grown among corporate management, financial analysts, brokers, and fund managers, making it difficult to tell financial fantasy from reality, salesmanship from honest advice.

In Take on the Street, Arthur Levitt - former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission - shows how you can take matters into your own hands. At once anecdotal (names are named), informative, and prescriptive, Take on the Street expounds on, among other subjects: the conflicts of interest inherent in buy-hold-or-sell recommendations of analysts; the "seven deadly sins" of mutual funds; how accountants engage in legerdemain to fake impressive company performance; the real reason for the Street's hostility to full disclosure; the seduction by corporate management of boards of directors; and, given these shenanigans and double-dealings, some specific steps you can take to safeguard your financial future.

With integrity and authority, Levitt gives us a bracing primer on the collapse of the system that oversees our capital markets, and essential advice on a discipline we often ignore to our peril - how not to lose money.