In Capital, Marx reviled various kinds of capitalist middlemen as “parasites” (as well as “vampires”), and near the end of the final volume, published in the 1890s, he discussed “a new kind of parasite in the guise of company promoters, speculators, and merely nominal directors; an entire system of swindling and cheating with respect to the promotion of companies, issue of shares and share dealings.” Blame Marx for the horrors of Communism if you want, but the guy had some prescient insights about the capitalist future.
