The transfer of Wall Street from private ownership to public ownership has been a big step backward.

Without getting into brothels, there are ethical capitalists the problem is that there aren't enough of them. It is not "just a few bad apples" that have been evident in our corporations, our investment bankers and our mutual funds, but so many that one has to concede that the barrel itself needs some work.

Fund investors are confident that they can easily select superior fund managers. They are wrong.

Successful investing is about owning businesses and reaping the huge rewards provided by the dividends and earnings growth of our nation's - and, for that matter, the world's - corporations.

I think we all ought to be careful about too much generalization on this issue, even as I confess to painting with a pretty broad brush myself!

The miracle of compounding returns has been overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs.

But whatever the consensus on the EMH, I know of no serious academic, professional money manager, trained security analyst, or intelligent individual investor who would disagree with the thrust of EMH: The stock market itself is a demanding taskmaster. It sets a high hurdle that few investors can leap.