[fabsroman]

No, there is seriously something wrong with the system, and I will tell you what it is. Retirement accounts. How much money do these investment companies, etc. make just because most Americans with a 401(k), 403(b), or some other type of retirement account are forced to stick their money in stocks or bonds? How much money is blindly flowing to these people without the investors actually knowing what is going on? I know I have absolutely no idea what stocks my wife and I own in our retirement accounts, and that is $100K today. It was a decent amount more a month ago. Do you guys think I have the time to look at all these companies that my mutual funds invest in, or to look at the compensation packages that the Boards of these companies approve for these executives. Mind you, a lot of the people on the Boards of these companies are probably people that are getting something back from the executives. I wouldn't doubt it if there are attorneys/accountants/etc. sitting on these boards and the executives hire them to provide services to the company.

What we need is the ability for stockholders to bring derivative suits with more teeth in them. The members of the Board need to be responsible for these outrageous compensation plans, and most compensation plans for executives should be enough for them to live well off, with bonuses for increased profitability of the company that results in an increased stock price. Granted, tying their bonus compensation to the stock price tends to create some very creative accounting that leads to stuff like Enron, Fannie Mae, Mills Corp, and more, where they bend and break accounting rules to increase profit so they can get their bonuses.

There is plenty of white color crime and collusion, and that is the problem with the system. We need bigger jails for both the violent criminals, and the white color criminals.

Oh yeah, back to my original point. We need to make it mandatory where any employer sponsored retirement plan includes CD's in them, where an employee can at least put something away that will be completely stable. Yes, I have heard the "stock market, over any 30 year period has returned 8%", but today's market is a lot different than 30 years ago. The internet itself has a huge influence on the stock market.

My mother in-law is 58 and lost a good amount in her 403(b) because the plan did not offer anything very conservative like a CD or a full bond fund. At her current age, that is completely unacceptable.