I'm in total agreement with you.
However, you and I are retired and have the time to checkout what stocks Mutual Funds own. A lot of people don't have that time and others don't know of a quick and easy way to find out what stocks their mutual funds own.
I posted a thread to help Freepers to determine stock ownership by their mutual funds:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1598732/posts
If your mutual funds own newspaper stock, you may have a problem
self, moneycentral.msn.com | 18 March 2006 | Grampa Dave
Posted on 03/18/2006 8:33:10 AM PST by Grampa Dave
To Jim Robinson, admin moderator, please excuse this vanity.
This is the only way of warning Freepers that their mutual funds may be invested in stocks of our enemies and real potential losers, the stocks of the lying, spinning and probable dinosaur fishwraps or newspapers.
Since, GW was re elected, the stock values of many of the major lying/spinning fishwraps have been falling like a rock dropped in a ocean.
This past week has been a very bad week for many newspaper stocks with the reports of less subscribers and the NYT and TRB may have their bond rating lowered by Moody's.
Most Freepers would never knowingly invest in the stock of these left wing enemies. However, many of these left wing fishwraps appear to massively owned by institutions and mutual funds. These mutual funds are probably holding up the value of the Enron type newspapers with the precious $'s from their investors.
Often these mutual funds are in our IRAs or 401K's or similiar deferred savings or in college funds for our children and grandchildren. Investing in these dinosaurs probably presents a clear present danger to our precious investment $s.
The links below will take us to MSN's money central for NYT, TRB and WPO, the NY Slimes, LA Slimes/Chicago Tribune and Compost. Once there you can see the institutional and mutual fund ownership of each dinosaur fishwrap.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=nyt
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=trb
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=WPO
The above links will work for any company, just delete the 3 letter stock symbol at the end and enter the stock code for the stock/stocks you are interested in.
"However, you and I are retired and have the time to checkout what stocks Mutual Funds own."
All it takes is caring enough about America to make sure you aren't helping our enemies. Just remember to ask the simple question, "What companies is this fund invested in?"
The broker will generally try to give you a list of the top 20 companies percentage wise, but ask for the complete list down to the .001%.
Divide the percentage into the fund value and you will have the dollar amount. I automatically receive these lists every quarter just for asking.