Investors today are getting fed lays and distortions, are getting exploited and neglected. In the wake of the last decade’s rush to get by millions of households and Wall structure Street’s obsession with short-term overall performance, a culture of gamesmanship is continuing to grow among corporate management, financial analysts, brokers, and finance managers, rendering it hard to inform financial fantasy from fact, salesmanship from honest suggestions.

In Undertake the Street, Arthur Levitt-former chairman from the Securities and about Take on the road: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don’t Wish You to learn and How You Can Fight Back Exchange Commission-shows how you can take matters into your own hands. At once anecdotal (titles are called), helpful, and prescriptive, Take on the road expounds on, among other subjects: the partnership between broker settlement and your trading account; the conflicts of interest natural in buy-hold-or-sell recommendations of analysts; just what happens-and who gets a piece of the action-when you place an purchase; the “seven dangerous sins” of mutual funds; the vagaries and vicissitudes of 401(k) opportunities; how accountants take part in sleight of hand to fake impressive company performance; where to find the truth in a company’s monetary statements; the real reason for the Street’s hostility to full disclosure; the crisis in corporate and business governance, and, provided these shenanigans and double-dealings, what specific steps you can take to safeguard your economic future.

With integrity and authority, Levitt gives us a bracing primer over the collapse of the machine for overseeing our capital markets, and sage, essential advice on the discipline we often ignore to your peril-how not to lose money.