Books in Brief: The Money Managers

The Money Managers, edited by Gilbert Edmund Kaplan and Chris Welles (Random House, 279 pp., $6.95). Not exactly a sequel to The Money Game, but like that book a product of the new age of invesetment management, this collection of profiles which appeared in George Goodman’s (“Adam Smith”) Institutional Investor in 1968-69 usefully supplements Mr. Goodman’s own work. Those who do not read the Institutional Investor (subscription is limited to the money-managers) should find this an enlightening—and entertaining —survey of the almost-current state of the art. Unfortunately, the state of the art is some distance from being reassuring. In general, managers who did well in 1967 did poorly in 1968-69, and one freyquently discovers in these pagesigns of a revisionist attitude: in-house research, emphasis on fundamentals, recognition of the part played by luck. Doubtless healthy, but not very inspiriting: the net effect is that a little glamor seems to be gone from the money game. Recommended nonetheless to all current and prospective holders of common stocks.