Arbeitspapier

Ignorance is Strength

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.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: Research Note

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
Thema
finance
differential information
literature
power

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Nitzan, Jonathan
Bichler, Shimshon
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
The Bichler and Nitzan Archives
(wo)
Toronto
(wann)
2021

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Nitzan, Jonathan
  • Bichler, Shimshon
  • The Bichler and Nitzan Archives

Entstanden

  • 2021

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