After the United States went through the beginning of the Great Depression (starting with the stock market crash of 1929) the government passed laws that basically said if you are courting an investor you have to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.Which means, if you are selling stock in a company to investors you have to tell the investors everything about the company (the good and the bad).In the early 2000's we had a bunch of companies lie to the public about their income and expenses and the Sarbannes-Oxley law was passed.In some ways I sometimes thing that the Sarbannes-Oxley act forces companies that are publicly traded (on Wall Street) to prep all their financial statements so they are easy enough for a high schooler (someone in about 10^thgrade) to read and understand.This takes a ton of work to do an annual statement in such a way as to be totally understood by someone so young (and costs a lot of money).

How important is investing in the stock market to you?

Are there any companies you think will be great investments for the long term?