“When a man knows he is to be hanged, it concentrates his mind wonderfully,” Samuel Johnson famously quipped. It would not be too much of a stretch to fit this to the case of the investment fund manager: nothing brings about the wonderful concentration of his mind so much as a combination of poor returns and the threat of legal suits.
In what reads like a parody, an article in the Telegraph this week cited the Chairman of investment giant Aberdeen Sir Douglas Flint telling a conference that fund managers had made “ridiculously extravagant claims” about “saving the world” instead of focusing on profits.
To read the rest of this article, you need to donate at least £5/month or £50/year to the Daily Sceptic, then create an account on this website. The easiest way to create an account after you’ve made a donation is to click on the ‘Log In’ button on the main menu bar, click ‘Register’ underneath the sign-in box, then create an account, making sure you enter the same email address as the one you used when making a donation. Once you’re logged in, you can then read all our paywalled content, including this article. Being a donor will also entitle you to comment below the line, discuss articles with our contributors and editors in a members-only Discord forum and access the premium content in the Sceptic, our weekly podcast. A one-off donation of at least £5 will also entitle you to the same benefits for one month. You can donate here.
There are more details about how to create an account, and a number of things you can try if you’re already a donor – and have an account – but cannot access the above perks on our Premium page.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.