Ignorance is Strength

Ignorance is Strength
Bichler, Shimshon and Nitzan, Jonathan. (2021). Research Note. March. pp. 1-5. (Article - Working Paper; English).

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Alternative Locations

https://www.academia.edu/45637818/Ignorance_is_Strength, https://capitalaspower.com/casp-forum/topic/ignorance-is-strength/, https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/232294

Abstract or Brief Description

Colin Harrison's novel The Finder (2008) uncovers the hidden hierarchy of differential information. We live in a knowledge economy, or so they say. And in the world of finance, knowledge is power: the power to buy assets before their price appreciates. This knowledge-as-power, though, is profitable only when exclusive. Common knowledge – no matter how sophisticated and complex – is never profitable. Only differential knowledge – i.e., knowledge that is unavailable to others or superior to what they have – can yield a ‘return’.

This differential prerequisite explains why every entity in the pyramid of financial information – whether a person or an organization – has no more than a partial vista, with the remaining view blurred by enforced opaqueness and power-backed misinformation. The different vistas are also deeply formative. Individual ‘actors’ may feel empowered by what they know, but in practice, what they know serves to frame their thoughts and direct their actions – usually without them ever knowing it. Even those at the very top – indeed, especially those at the very top – are slaves to their knowledge, however superior.

Language

English

Publication Type

Article - Working Paper

Keywords

finance differential information literature power

Subject

BN Money & Finance
BN Power
BN Region - Asia
BN Region - North America
BN Value & Price
BN Business Enterprise
BN Capital & Accumulation
BN Conflict & Violence
BN Distribution

Depositing User

Jonathan Nitzan

Date Deposited

29 Mar 2021 20:37

Last Modified

31 Mar 2021 15:28

URL:

http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/id/eprint/682

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