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Letter to the Editor on "The Irresponsible Investor"

Christopher Mackin
Ownership Associates, Inc.
Published in the New York Times Magazine,
June 20, 2004.

Google's decision to grant its employee investors 10 times the voting power of outside investors may signal the beginning of a trend -- capitalism that puts "people who work" first ("The Irresponsible Investor," by Michael Lewis). Stock markets are great for liquidity and in rare instances for producing capital to grow businesses. But having the power to place financial bets should not confer primary power to the investor class. Investors should be restricted to the grandstands where they belong. Capitalism should be about letting the players who are on the field play ball.

Christopher Mackin
Cambridge, Mass.

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