Monday, October 31, 2016

Buying a company's shares doesn't mean that you'll get proportionate claim on its real profits [COMPACTIDEA]

I had an Indian friend during MBA who once told me that there's no need to do any kind of business. One can/should just buy shares of good listed companies and thus "participate in their growth" and "get a share of their profits". I laughed in my mind at his innocence. He likely has absolutely no idea of the kind of accounting and other frauds/tricks companies use throughout the world - fake bills/invoices, fake sale, fake expenses, altered interest rates, fake commissions, and so on, in order to reduce "visible" profit [to reduce tax burden] and yet to ensure that the real owners/promoters are rewarded lavishly. Most companies use shareholders only to raise money [sort of interest-free loan]. There's no obligation whatsoever to reward them handsomely [although CEOs, etc., keep uttering this "create value for our shareholders" phrase frequently], and this is exactly what most companies do. So my friend had no idea actually.

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