swingbeat: 16/26: The Number by Alex Berenson
Recommended.
This book's subtitle is, boringly, "How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America". Whew! I picked up this book because I read about it on Mark Cuban's blog, and he highly recommended it. It's pretty good, with some potentially boring accounting history somewhere in there.
The author is a New York Times financial reporter. His writing flows well, and his thesis comes through quite clearly:
1. Accounting firms are corrupt and lobby to prevent regulation.
2. The SEC is powerless
3. President Bush prevents securities reform
4. Executives make way too much money, think about themselves, and are greedy.
5. Analysts are in bed with the companies they analyzed because of their investment banking ties.
He provides many examples of the above statements, and it's quite disheartening for any small investor. For example, I knew about Worldcom, Enron and other scandals at a high level, but I wasn't privy to the details. He illustrates the corruption and greed behind the executives' actions. And he also points fingers at the accounting firms that did the auditing, how they are supposed to be independent, but they get too cozy.
Lots of this stuff I knew, it's always nice to hear how rampant the corruption is, and the effects.
Anywayz, it's a pretty good book, if you're interested in hearing about the bubble bust from a guy who was reporting on it, this is it. Mark Cuban endorses way more than I do :)!
This book's subtitle is, boringly, "How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America". Whew! I picked up this book because I read about it on Mark Cuban's blog, and he highly recommended it. It's pretty good, with some potentially boring accounting history somewhere in there.
The author is a New York Times financial reporter. His writing flows well, and his thesis comes through quite clearly:
1. Accounting firms are corrupt and lobby to prevent regulation.
2. The SEC is powerless
3. President Bush prevents securities reform
4. Executives make way too much money, think about themselves, and are greedy.
5. Analysts are in bed with the companies they analyzed because of their investment banking ties.
He provides many examples of the above statements, and it's quite disheartening for any small investor. For example, I knew about Worldcom, Enron and other scandals at a high level, but I wasn't privy to the details. He illustrates the corruption and greed behind the executives' actions. And he also points fingers at the accounting firms that did the auditing, how they are supposed to be independent, but they get too cozy.
Lots of this stuff I knew, it's always nice to hear how rampant the corruption is, and the effects.
Anywayz, it's a pretty good book, if you're interested in hearing about the bubble bust from a guy who was reporting on it, this is it. Mark Cuban endorses way more than I do :)!
posted by Jay at 10:25 PM
1 Comments:
Absolutely disgusting and depressing. I've seen way too movies lately that show the cynicism and just plain evil in corporations and governments lately: "Lord of War", "The Constant Gardener", "Syriana", "Munich", "The Corporation", and "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room". With the blatant greed and self-interest these people show, it's absolutely ridiculous to think that what we really need is even more deregulation.
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