Leadership Spotlight

Finance professor Jeremy Siegel's newest book, The Future for Investors, takes a "long, hard, and in-depth look at the market" and ultimately warns investors against overpaying for growth stocks. The book's surprising finding is that the new technologies, expanding industries, and fast-growing countries that stockholders relentlessly seek in the market often lead to poor returns.

In fact, growth itself can be an investment trap, luring investors into overpriced stocks and overly competitive industries, Siegel argues. The Future for Investors, published in March, steers investors toward relatively inexpensive stock picks. Investors would do better buying out-of-favor industries, reinvesting often-high dividends to accumulate more shares in weak periods and waiting until those companies return to favor, Siegel told BusinessWeek in a recent interview.