Failure This Big Wasn't Born Yesterday

Bear Stearns collapsed in March and was taken over by J.P. Morgan Chase. Bear Stearns, founded in 1923, had been the country's fifth-largest investment bank.

"Anyone can make money doing things that are nice and decent and safe," Weiss pointed out two years before the Bear Stearns failure. "But it takes a gutsy firm, an envelope-pushing firm, to make money doing things that aren't so nice and aren't so decent or safe."

At least there is justice. The company was sold for a song, at $2 a share.

This book reads at times like a novel with a cast of dastardly characters. It starts out and ultimately ends with the arbitration case of Rand Groves, an individual investor from New Jersey, who tried but failed to win a case against Merrill Lynch after he lost $5 million that had been tied up in stock options in two Internet stocks. He had gone to Merrill Lynch because he was concerned about having so much money -- on paper at least -- in just two stocks. Groves complained that Merrill Lynch did not provide the expert investing advice it promised. The company denied any wrongdoing.

"As Rand Groves and thousands of other people have learned, investors in trouble have no friends," Weiss wrote.

But you do have a friend in Weiss. He's the type of friend who pumps you up when you're down. He's the friend that tells you not to take being pushed around.

"The answer to the market's woes is you," Weiss says. "The solution is literally you -- your investment choices, your actions, and, above all, all the things that you shouldn't do."

I've been getting e-mails from people across the country worried about the losses in their investment portfolios. But what strikes me as naive is that many of these people never considered that they could suffer great losses.

That means they're uninformed.

No question there's more in this book than you may want to know. But there's just too much you need to know not to pick it up.

To become a member of the Color of Money Book Club, all you have to do is read the recommended book. I invite you to join me online to chat about the book. Join me for a live discussion with Weiss at noon Eastern time, October 23 at http://www.washingtonpost.com.

In addition, every month I randomly select readers to receive a copy of the book, donated by the publisher. For a chance to win a copy of "Wall Street Versus America," send an e-mail to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Please include your name and an address so we can send you a book if you win.

· On the air: Michelle Singletary discusses personal finance Tuesdays on NPR's "Day to Day" program and athttp://www.npr.org.

· By mail: Readers can write to her at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.

· By e-mail:singletarym@washpost.com.

Comments and questions are welcome, but because of the volume of mail, personal responses are not always possible. Please note that comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer's name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated.