Veblenron

["Forstater, Mathew" <ForstaterM@xxxxxxxx>]

For those not on afeemail, this Veblen quote showed up there during a discussion of enron.

 

From Veblen's 1904 book _The Theory Of Business Enterprise_ [Chapter 6].

 

"It follows, further, that under these circumstances the men who have the management of such an industrial enterprise, capitalized and quotable on the market, will be able to induce a discrepancy between the putative and the actual earning-capacity, by expedients well known

and approved for the purpose. Partial information, as well as misinformation, sagaciously given out at a critical juncture, will go far toward producing a favorable temporary discrepancy of this kind, and so enabling the managers to buy or sell the securities of the  concern with advantage to themselves."