It seems most appropriate to begin this blog with the Well, Duh! Line o' the Day, courtesy of Fortune magazine:
"Morgan Stanley made money on Facebook share drop
Reputation aside, Facebook's bungled IPO turned out to be a very good trade for its investment bankers"
Well, Duh! Is there anyone out there willing even to pretend to be surprised by this? Contrary to self-entitled rumor, Wall Street does not exist to extend the blessings of windfall capital gains to the great unwashed, merely out of the generosity of its corporate heart. It exists, as any free-market-capitalistic enterprise exists, to maximize its own profit - or, to be precise, the profits of its constituent entities.
News flash: Morgan Stanley and the rest of the underwriters could care less about Mark Zuckerberg's achievement with Facebook, or his desires, goals, aspirations, ambitions, target net-worth figure, or how admiringly Zuckerberg congratulated himself on waiting to marry Dr. Chen until after the IPO launched. Morgan Stanley is/was interested in only one thing: its own bottom line.
Even that statement demands qualification. Morgan Stanley, Inc., is a corporation; it "exists solely in contemplation of the law," to borrow Mr. Chief Justice Marshall's opinion in Dartmouth College v. Woodward. A corporation has neither conscience nor consciousness; for me to say that Morgan Stanley "is interested in only one thing" misattributes to a corporation, a legal fiction, the acts of the humans who, invested with free will, manage the affairs of the corporation.
My statement would have been better formulated as, "Morgan Stanley's management is/was interested in only one thing: the corporation's bottom line."
Well, Duh! O:)
"Morgan Stanley made money on Facebook share drop
Reputation aside, Facebook's bungled IPO turned out to be a very good trade for its investment bankers"
Well, Duh! Is there anyone out there willing even to pretend to be surprised by this? Contrary to self-entitled rumor, Wall Street does not exist to extend the blessings of windfall capital gains to the great unwashed, merely out of the generosity of its corporate heart. It exists, as any free-market-capitalistic enterprise exists, to maximize its own profit - or, to be precise, the profits of its constituent entities.
News flash: Morgan Stanley and the rest of the underwriters could care less about Mark Zuckerberg's achievement with Facebook, or his desires, goals, aspirations, ambitions, target net-worth figure, or how admiringly Zuckerberg congratulated himself on waiting to marry Dr. Chen until after the IPO launched. Morgan Stanley is/was interested in only one thing: its own bottom line.
Even that statement demands qualification. Morgan Stanley, Inc., is a corporation; it "exists solely in contemplation of the law," to borrow Mr. Chief Justice Marshall's opinion in Dartmouth College v. Woodward. A corporation has neither conscience nor consciousness; for me to say that Morgan Stanley "is interested in only one thing" misattributes to a corporation, a legal fiction, the acts of the humans who, invested with free will, manage the affairs of the corporation.
My statement would have been better formulated as, "Morgan Stanley's management is/was interested in only one thing: the corporation's bottom line."
Well, Duh! O:)
Well, they have their reputation to think about too, at least as it relates to their bottom line, if for no other reason. No more good rep, no more clients, no more moolah. One does not stay in business by stiffing people.
ReplyDeleteAll of this is true. Unfortunately, it misses the point. The Well, Duh! moment from the original article on fortune.cnn.com was that Morgan Stanley made money from transactions in the market. My point was that no one should be surprised that a capitalist enterprise made money. That is, after all, the one thing that capitalist enterprises do - maximize profit (make the most money).
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