Interesting artice from former Wall Streeter

[J in Florida]

http://www.portfolio.com/news-marke...2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom#page1

It's fairly long (9 pages) but it explains ALOT.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

he couldn’t figure out exactly how the rating agencies justified turning BBB loans into AAA-rated bonds.

Rating agencies should be prosecuted. I read Lewis's book. Guttfrend was disconnected from the real world. Traders with no experience, like Lewis, were telling people with millions of dollars to buy on BS. I remember one time he admitted that he took a tip from one of his collegues to buy some stock, maybe ATT. After he talked the investor into it, the stock went down and he found out his "friend" was dumping ATT at the same time. This is advice? And your 401k is depending upon jokers like this.

Another older book worth reading is "Blood on the Streets" and its about bad advice given during the dotcom bust. Great read both.