I dont remember saying that they cant. An investor should have access to all the financials of the business they invest in. They should select a board that will keep an eye on things. And they should seek legal recourse (civil suit) when a business harms them financially. WHat can the govt do that the people cant in this regard?

__________________
http://www.fairtax.org

Elminate all taxes on income and replace with a national sales tax.

The government can require audits by independent entities, for one. It can leverage criminal penalties for fraud.

And, unfortunately, candidates for the Board are generally picked by the Board, so there ain't a whole lot of independence there.


BTW, have you ever actually tried to read a big company's financial filings?

__________________
When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

You got that right...my Fidelity 401k report. By law they have to report the companies detailed performance.
I believe it is about 32 pages long.
They use This font in this type size

(Book 9 pt)
They print it on 35# hi-bulk paper, which is the paper they make with the scraps left from making regular paper - hi bulk is highly porous so the ink tends to soak in and spread - so it is even more difficult to read - I guarantee they use this paper because hi-bulk is actually more expensive than newsprint paper. (hey remember I run a printing company)

Not only that , but the language is horrible, filled with graphs that make no sense etc. etc.
If you actually read it - you would have a raging migraine and know less than when you started reading it.

It doesn't matter what you said jviehe...it is what is factually correct.
This is what I meant when I said your response is self-contradictory.

You basically said:
"stockholders should be the ones watching management"
however they can legally off-book assets/liabilities from stockholders - contradiction


You basically said:
"stockholders should look more into the companies they invest in"
however they can legally off-book assets/liabilities from stockholders - contradiction

You can't have it both ways - you can't have it legal for a companies management to be able to in fact purposely misslead stockholders, at the same time say that stockholders should be the ones holding CEO's etc responsible....if you can't see the contradiction in that - I don't know what to tell you.

norrin hands iamwhatiseem some Aspirin.

Here is an interesting tidbit.........

(OH) American minimum wage workers' salary compared to CEOs

A faculty member wanted to know how many hours American workers worked a week, American worker productivity, hours of vacation, and average worker makes compared to a CEO. The average hours worked was found in the Statistical Abstract of the U.S., worker productivity, vacation days and extra hours was found in the Dobbs Report: The Perils of Productivity and the CEO salary was found on Congressman Bernie Sander's website (retrieved 7/13/2004).

According to the Congressman's website, in 1980 the average CEO pay was 97 times larger than the pay of a minimum wage worker. In 1998 the average CEO pay was 989 times larger. Today, the CEO only has to work two hours to earn as much as a minimum wage worker earns in an entire year. The spread is amazing.

The faculty member was pleased with the above information. She said, thank you so very much for this information. It is exactly what I needed. You make my work so much easier!

Mae N. Schreiber
Associate Professor of Bibliography
University of Akron, Bierce Library
Akron, Ohio

(OH) American minimum wage workers' salary compared to CEOs | Free Government Information (FGI)

Fortunately, the only ones I have had to deal with have been electronic copies. Much easier to read (easy to zoom).

In one of my finance classes we broke down and compared the annual reports of Intel and AMD. Intel actually writes a damn good report. It's well-written and clear enough that as I accumulate money for stock investing I'll be purchasing some Intel.

__________________
When they come a wull staun ma groon
Staun ma groon al nae be afraid
Thoughts awe hame tak awa ma fear
Sweat an bluid hide ma veil awe tears

Move on then. You are not getting it. I said business can do what ever they want, and so can stockholders. It is up to them to decide how things will be and to make sure that things are run as they want. We dont need govt.

__________________
http://www.fairtax.org

Elminate all taxes on income and replace with a national sales tax.