Friday 3 August 2007

Quote for a friday afternoon - Adam Smith

Here's a quote from Adam Smith on limited liability and public companies. I think he must have lost a few quid in over-hyped tech stocks that day or something.

"This total exemption from trouble and from risk, beyond a limited sum, encourages many people to become adventurers in joint stock companies who would, upon no account, hazard their own fortunes in any private copartnery. The directors of such companies, however, being the managers rather of other people's money than their own, it cannot well be expected that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which the partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own."

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