After the tech and telecom stock bubble burst in 2000, analysts at investment banks who hyped such failures as Pets.com and WorldCom were proven to be major culprits. Indeed, stock analysts at the time publicly praised tech and telecom companies in research reports, which brokers then used to sell shares to Mom and Pop investors. In private, the same analysts disparaged the companies, and in internal emails called them pieces of junk, or worse. The disclosure in 2003 of these unsavory emails written by tech and telecom stock analysts led to a $1.4 billion global Wall Street regulatory settlement of stock research and new rules of conduct for analysts. “At firm after firm, according to prosecutors, analysts wittingly duped investors to curry favor with corporate clients,” The New York Times reported at the time. “Investment houses received secret payments from companies they gave strong recommendations to buy. And for top executives whose companies were…
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