The writer reread the book by Arthur Levitt, Former Chair of the SEC titled “Take On the Street” it was printed in 2002 but the issues never really go away. In the book, after a career making money on Wall Street, Mr Levitt moved to Chair the SEC and tried to take the viewpoint of all investors instead of just some. Similar to every industry, as much as people talk about competition, they perfer it for the other guy. Most people want a regular dependable income and too much competition changes the status quo. Many of the examples dealt with growth stocks or using various accounting methods to make the company look more attractive in the investors eyes. An increasing share price means less questions and greater benefits for insiders. Eventually stock prices do down and things that were done that are not quite illegal, but abuses none the less are shown and reform or regulations are called for.
On the opoosite side of the examples are dividend paying companies, they generally do not get caught in the abuses, because they do not need to. Thus one method to avoid the worst of stock market is invest in dividend paying companies and if they begin to sway into the less than legal side, move on because eventually they will have to post loses.

There are always more questions than answers, till the next time, to raising questions.