In these troubled economic times there is a voice of reason. It’s Benjamin Graham who wrote his classic The Intelligent Investor in 1949. He revised and updated The Intelligent Investor over the years, but the core of his investment approach has remained the same: buy the stocks of good companies. You don’t have to read all 623 pages of Graham’s classic. You can do what Warren Buffett (who wrote the INTRODUCTION) suggests: read Chapter 8 “The Investor and Market Fluctuations” and Chapter 20 “Margin of Safety as the Central Concept of Investment.” That will give you the essence of Graham’s philosophy. Of course the rest of the book holds valuable insights, too. Hundreds of books are published each year touting “hot stocks” and “fool-proof” investment strategies. They are junk. Read The Intelligent Investor for the real gold standard of sensible investing.