Just finished "Take on the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate
America Don't Want You to Know -- What You Can Do to Fight Back" by
Arthur Levitt with Paula Dwyer. The book is shorter (300 pages) than
its title suggests.

What I like most about the book is that it is chock full of stories I
could learn something from, and lots of links to find out more.

Levitt takes Wall Street myths head on. For example, did you know
that you can submit a shareholder proposal (aka. shareholder
resolution) and get it on a proxy statement? If the public company
wants to disqualify a proposal, it must contact the SEC, which must
approve the disqualification. Shareholder proposals are effective
tools these days. It used to be that you couldn't muster 1% of the
vote for a shareholder proposal. Now, proposals are garnering 50+%,
enough to win.

Brokers, exchanges, mutual funds, accounting, corporate governance,
retirement plans, and Washington politics are discussed in detail with
lots of anecdotes. For example, he explains how Sprint's top managers
hoodwinked shareholders by getting approval for immediate vesting of
options if the company changed hands. The next year the board
approved an amendment that allowed executives to exercise their
options once a merger was approved by shareholders. The WorldCom
merger was approved by shareholders, but the deal failed for antitrust
reasons. Many top managers cashed out right away, taking advantage of
the loophole.

Levitt includes an appendix with letters from various Congressfolk who
were adamantly opposed to any changes in auditor/consulting
arrangements *before* Enron. They are really quite a riot to read.
One of the authors is Michael Oxley, who of course sponsored the
Sarbanes-Oxley bill, now law, post-Enron. The appendix shows the
power games in plain light--unfortunately in hindsight.

Warren Buffet is featured in the book. Buffet prides itself on plain
English prospectuses. On page 44, Buffet translates a turgid paragraph
into something even I could understand. :-) Levitt used Buffet in a
variety of political battles while Levitt was SEC Chairman.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and I learned quite a bit. I recommend it
to anybody who wants to understand how The Street works, i.e., all
shareholders. Here's a link to Amazon (bivio gets a cut if you
click and buy):

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375421785/bivioalllower

Cheers,
Rob Nagler
bivio Inc.

> Just finished "Take on the Street:

Thank you, Rob. With the cold of winter setting in (at least here in
Minnesota), it's a nice to time to catch up on some reading. Yours is the
second complimentary report I've read on this book. Sounds like a good
read.

Lynn Ostrem, Minneapolis
garbagecop@foxinternet.net