live soft skills

The South Seas Bubble by soft skils ● In the early Eighteenth Century, the South Seas Company was granted exclusive trading rights in the South Seas (South American colonies) in return for helping to finance Government borrowing. ● To help grow their operations, they looked for investors and issued shares. ● Things seemed to be going well – more and more investors put money in. ● There were expensive London offices – it all looked very successful. ● Management lied about how good it was – with no information available other than what management told them, investors did not know the truth. ● In 1718, Britain and Spain went to war … and the ability to trade in the South Seas was now zero. ● But investors did not know this and kept buying shares ….. ● …..whilst management secretly sold their own shares. ● Once the truth got out, there was a crash – the " South Seas Bubble " had burst. What can we learn from this? ● Investors need to be able to trust managers / directors...