Oh, this is all relating to the AOL buyout still.
Yeah, there were a number of companies which overstated many things, including their future outlooks. Yes, I think these companies blatantly ripped people off. Enron was by far the worst, obviously, but even many of the dotcoms that hardly get a mention had people who profited off my retirement money without providing value. That's just plain dishonest. I still feel the best punishment for someone like Enron's Kenneth Lay is for the government to seize his assets and Exile him from the country. He abused America's protections, therefore should be deprived of same.
But on the other hand, I think some of these lawsuits are a whee bit retarded. I lost a fairly signifigant amount of money in the markets, but I also blame myself. I saw this bubble, I argued endlessly with many people about this. I even suggested to others that they might want to consider selling some of their highly inflated stock(YHOO, AMZN) back in '99. It didn't take a financial genius to see all of that. I just didn't realize it was going to hit the rest of the companies, nor was I expecting these Enron scandals although I probably should have given how the dotcoms were acting.
I was watching something on C-Span today, I think it was a National Press Club luncheon. Anyway they had a lobbyist from Lloyd's of London talking about Insurance regulation in the United States. This guy made a comment which I found very striking, especially in light of my homeowners policy rates going up recently. He pointed out that Lloyd's only had around 1% of their portfolio invested in equities, the rest was in bonds and other conservative investments. Four years ago everybody said they were crazy, today they agree it was a smart move.
Diversification is the key. And if you can't stand the thought of losing money, then don't play high risk markets. Four years ago the "general wisdom" was to put 95% of your retirement monies in equities. I questioned it then, and I really question it today. I'm still trying to figure out what that right balance is for me, I made a really really lucky move in August of 2001 by selling off most of the equities in my 401k and buying bonds. I wasn't sure then, but boy am I glad today I made that move today... I still lost money, but not nearly as much.
Anyway, I do hope the Sarbanes-Oxley bill ultimately makes a difference, at least in perceptions. The majority of US companies are not corrupt and out to rip people off and unfortunately their stocks have still taken a beating because of the actions of a few.
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