Arthur Levitt Quotations

Firms need to ensure that their ability to provide effective customer service keeps pace with their growth. If you're marketing your firm to new customers, you better be able to provide them service when they do business with you.

Although the Internet makes it seem as if you have a direct connection to the securities market, you don't. Lines may clog; systems may break; orders may back-up.

Today, the forces of competition, technology, and globalization have converged to spur innovation and to transform the way business is done in the securities industry.

George Orwell once blamed the demise of the English language on politics. It's quite possible he never read a prospectus.

We should never lose sight of the underlying essence of a market-a place where buyers and sellers come together. Every other feature-whether crafted by tradition or technology-exists only to serve that primary purpose.

I think that the failures of Enron and WorldCom and other companies are partially failures of investors to recognize companies that are selling for a thousand times nothing, but chances are they may be worth only that.

I think we have got to start thinking about banding together in terms of interested groups.

One way for investors to protect themselves from a rapid change in the price of a stock is to use a limit order rather than a market order.

Over the past two decades, we have clearly seen an erosion of ethical values.

Another misconception is that an order is canceled when you hit 'cancel' on your computer. But, the fact is it's canceled only when the market gets the cancellation.

Investors should start with a view of skepticism. They should become intellectual investors rather than emotional investors. They should be careful, and they should be skeptical.

But when that information travels only to a privileged few, when it is used to profit at the expense of the investing public, when that information comes by way of favored access rather than by acumen, insight or diligence, we must ask, 'Whose interest is really being served?'.

While fund performance is unpredictable, the impact of fees is not, .. A 1- percent annual fee will reduce an ending account balance by 17 percent after 20 years.

Today it's fashionable to talk about the New Economy, or the Information Economy, or the Knowledge Economy. But when I think about the imperatives of this market, I view today's economy as the Value Economy. Adding value has become more than just a sound business principle; it is both the common denominator and the competitive edge.

Personally I don't think day traders are speculating, because traditional speculation requires some market knowledge. They are, instead, gambling, which doesn't.

Now, we all understand that directors aren't required to guarantee that their fund has the lowest fees, ... But they are required to ask whether fund investors are getting their money's worth.

Richard is a multifaceted kind of guy. He can probably do anything he sets his mind to.

From my own personal experience the best CEOs that I have ever known are the ones that don't care very much about the day-to-day fluctuations of their shares.

Fund directors should be on the front lines in defense of shareholder interest,

It has been almost 30 years since significant steps were taken to improve the mutual fund governance structure, ... Whether shareholders realize it or not, how directors fulfill their responsibilities directly affects them every day.

It is incumbent on us to facilitate the development of a market structure that best assures that these changes benefit the U.S. securities markets as a whole.

Our purpose, as we face these challenges, remains clear - fair and orderly markets that allow for efficient capital formation, while protecting the interests of investors.

Our role is to maintain and monitor a framework in which fair competition can flourish.

Our markets have not achieved their great successes as a result of government fiat, but rather through efforts of competing interests working to meet the demands of investors and to fulfill the promises posed by advancing technology.

That also has put pressure on analysts to report favorably on a company in order to maintain access to inside information,

The American economy is the eighth wonder of the world. The ninth is the economic ignorance of the American people.

I worry the best execution may be compromised by payment for order flow, internalization, and certain other practices that can present conflicts between the interests of brokers and their customers.

We have an opportunity today that we may not have again in our lifetime, to realize the vision for a true national market system,

We are not looking for a bit of window dressing on the same old recycled gobbledygook, ... We expect you to do whatever it takes to speak to investors in a language they understand -- English.

While private equity will remain technically private, its actions will become the public's concern.

What must occur is a greater recognition by investors of their individual responsibility.

do whatever was possible to expedite the process.

The SEC is launching more investigations into more big companies than ever before, ... The list of targets includes plenty of Fortune 500 players, including Bankers Trust, Cendant, Waste Management and W. R. Grace.

The tension between centrality, on the one hand, and competition, on the other, is probably the oldest of all market structure issues.

Sandy reacted to his times, and Chuck Prince is going to have to determine what his times are and how he should deal with that era.

Promoting the interaction of orders remains one of the most difficult, but crucially important, challenges we face concerning our national market system.

The motivation to satisfy Wall Street earnings expectations may be overriding common sense business practices, ... In the process, I fear, we are witnessing a gradual but inexorable erosion in the quality of financial reporting.

a way to gain and maintain favor with particular analysts.

Bad deals have led to some titanic failures for shareholders.

This is bound to inflame investor passion. Evidently, Raymond did a first-rate job. Why do they want to hurt his legacy and his image by creating a compensation package that is so skewed and so unnecessary?

This is the best hope that the investor community has today, ... This is the first time that a group made up of this type of individuals has come out for expensing stock options and curbs on the excessive compensation executives have been receiving.

This is outrageous that just two months ago, a public offering was done. Major banking institutions simply were asleep at the switch. There was clearly wrongdoing here that neither the accountants nor the underwriters nor the principal owners had any idea of.

This effort will be an important addition ? to encourage the education of fund directors,

They have been compared to a high-tech version of morning gossip or advice at the company water cooler, ... At least you knew your co-workers at the water cooler.

It is time for the U.S. securities market to make this change,

The best companies, the most solidly managed companies, are ones that are managed for the future that don't focus on the price of the shares.

Taxes are one of the most significant costs of investing in mutual funds,

I've had my dream job. I have been able to work on issues that I have been deeply passionate about since I first began my career in the securities business nearly 38 years ago,

Once again, stock markets have been threatened with extinction for almost 75 years, and I have found that stock markets are harder to kill than roaches.

If you compensate a CEO by giving him options, he's going to do everything he can to make those options as valuable as possible.

he said. ''I would hope the decision would be reversed upon appeal.

These issues are not academic or peripheral -- they directly affect every mutual fund investor. ... One word above all must define a fund's overall management structure. That word is accountability. And, without strong independent directors, accountability is nothing more than words on a page.