[quote=walterwhite]
…sometimes it seems like the SEC is primarily there to ensure disclosure in unbearably long, complex, unreadable and ultimately misleading prospectuses. Or at least teh appearance of disclosure. Actually, I tend to go with the whole fig leaf metaphor.[/quote]
There were plenty of savvy investors and even some financial pundits that were aware of Enron’s coming implosion and largely because they’d done their homework and pored over the Enron financials, including the hundreds upon hundreds of footnotes, annotations and appendices. The problem with that is that it takes an enormous amount of time and an understanding of how a firm like Andersen (or PWC or Deloitte) can “present” the information.
Similarly, there were investors and pundits who called the coming fall of 2008 crash quite presciently, too. Same attention to detail, and same willingness to do the homework.
For the average investor, however, you might as well be asking them to understand quantum physics. In many cases, they’re placing their faith in some stock jock who probably understands the “product” even less, he’s just pimping what the company tells him to sell and calculating his next bonus.
Someone’s gotta pay for the mistress, the Ferrari and the Bolivian marching powder…
