Markets and Morals

April 2025

If you haven’t come across it, we would thoroughly recommend a visit to the Library of Mistakes. As the Library’s website proclaims: “amid today’s geopolitical and economic ructions, our drive is to extend the understanding of economic and financial history so that both professionals and the investing public can avoid the mistakes of the past.”

We enjoyed the recent talk at the Library by Sir John Kay on the relationship between corporations and our society, one key aspect of our understanding of “stewardship” (as always, you can catch up on past events at the Library here). We were particularly enthralled by his story on the class action between Arkansas Teachers and Goldman Sachs revolving around Goldman Sachs’ ethics statement that reads “our client’s interest always come first”. Sir John tells of Arkansas Teachers claiming that this statement misled them into believing that Goldman Sachs was a reasonable place to invest their savings. Goldmans Sachs’ defense? Not that the statement was true, but that the statement was so patently false that no-one could have reasonably invested on the basis that it was true. The statement still stands on their website.

You can read more about our views on stewardship here.

As always, please find our latest fund factsheet here.