Long-term loss of investors seen.

• Position: Newsview

"Today's Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNBC, and Bloomberg Financial are filled with stories about highly paid executives who have driven their companies into bankruptcy, while Boards of Directors did little or nothing to stop them from obliterating shareholder value, but when was the last time you saw a lead story about the successful turnarounds at HP, AT&T, or any of a number of smaller public companies, including firms like Greenfield Online, my most recent turnaround? Collectively, these turnarounds have created many billions of dollars of new wealth for the shareholders, while also putting in place executives and Boards of Directors who create real value through know edge, experience, and hard work."

That is how author AI Angrisani-who served in the Reagan Administration as Assistant Secretary of Labor and Chief of Staff, and is recognized as the architect of the Job Training and Partnership Act of 1983, which stands today as the nation's primary Federal training program--begins his book, Win One for the Shareholders.

As Angrisani points out, "Clearly, there's something seriously wrong with the way all-too-many companies have been doing business. The people in charge have forgotten that their premier responsibility is to their share holders, that their first--and overridin--concern should be to safeguard the wealth of their shareholders. The major consequence of the collapse of 2008, which is not being discussed in the media, is the loss of many investors, perhaps for a generation or more. We are on the verge of losing a generation of investors in the stock market,"

He goes on to explain that, at the start of the Great Depression, less than 10% of Americans were invested in the stock market. As the market reached historic highs in 2008, just before the collapse in October, over 60% of Americans were invested in the market, taking...