David Adesnik runs across a quote from Marx describing Marx’s own efforts to speculate on the stock market and comments

You know, if Marx had just written a book called “The Working Man’s Guide to the Stock Market” everyone would’ve turned out rich and happy and we all could’ve avoided that whole unpleasant business with Lenin and Stalin.

Two things jump to mind. The first, of course, is that Marx did write “The Working Man’s Guide to the Stock Market,” it’s just better known by another name. The second is that Marx was notoriously bad with money and spent most of his life cadging money from Engels. Upon being told of the publication of Volume 1 of Das Kapital, Marx’s mother said “It would’ve been nice of Karl had made some capital, instead.” Marx didn’t get on with his mum. He felt she had no business living as long as she did, thereby depriving him of a small inheritance.