Editing Investor (section)

===Perceptions===
Economist [[Edmund Phelps]] has argued that the financier plays a role in directing capital to investments that governments and social organizations are constrained from playing:

{{blockquote|[T]he pluralism of experience that the financiers bring to bear in their decisions gives a wide range of entrepreneurial ideas a chance for insightful evaluation. And, importantly, the financier and the entrepreneur do not need the state's or social partners' approval. Nor are they accountable later on to such social bodies if the project goes badly, not even to the financier's investors. So projects that would be too opaque and uncertain for the state or social partners to endorse can be undertaken.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.europainstitut.at/upload/publikationen/publikation_39.pdf |title=Dynamic Capitalism |first=Edmund S. |last=Phelps |author-link=Edmund Phelps |publisher=[[Europa-Institut]] |date=October 10, 2006 }}</ref>}}

The concept of the financier has been distinguished from that of a mere capitalist based on the asserted higher level of judgment required of the financier.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Sterling |editor-last=Elliott |title=Good Roads: Devoted to the Construction and Maintenance of Roads |date=1896 |volume=24 |page=366 }}</ref> However, financiers have also been mocked for their perceived tendency to generate wealth at the expense of others, and without engaging in tangible labor. For example, humorist [[George Helgesen Fitch]] described the financier as "a man who can make two dollars grow for himself where one grew for someone else before".<ref>{{cite book |last=Fitch |first=George |title=Vest Pocket Essays |date=1916 |page=123 }}</ref>