Buy, Lie, and Sell High: How Investors Lost Out on Enron and the Internet Bubble

Talking Points

Avoiding another major bubble and its sad impact on small investors requires both more transparency about financial data and the transactions, and also greater regulatory protections for small investors.

Germany went through an Internet bubble just as did America, but with considerably less damage to the small investor. This is because in Germany the individual has far less control of her or his pension money than in America. Further, in Germany, there is a system that qualifies both investors and investments, and helps prevent individual savings from being invested in very speculative shares (whether in companies or mutual funds).

Ironically, the United States has a qualified investor system, but it has large gaps in it. In this ...