Power is Power

In the second season of HBO’s fantasy television series Game of Thrones, there is a interesting exchange of dialogue about the nature of power between Cersei and Littlefinger. While Lord Petyr Baelish (known as Littlefinger) tries to home in on the fact that Knowledge is Power, Cersei shows that ultimately Power is Power.

I was reminded of the above exchange as I wondered about the impact of Media on the choices we make. The easy availability of a medium such as the web has provided many with the ability to put forth their views which otherwise may have never been heard outside their four walls, when it comes to their ability to influence, they are still nowhere compared to those who are able to get their views expressed in Newspapers or on Television.

But how neutral are the Journalists / Experts who are provided the ability to express their view which is then flashed across to millions of readers / viewers. How many policy makers for instance use the new methods of Twitter / Blogs vs. reading the newspaper or watching the television to get a sense of the opinion of the general public at large?

For years and even today, much of the population believes stock markets are evil and dens of gambling. Any wonder then that the population of investors (Direct / In-direct) is very small despite our stock exchange being one of the oldest in the world (BSE is the oldest stock exchange in Asia).

In his post, “Financial Media & Reader Maturity”, P V Subramanyam who blogs at Subramoney closes of with the quote

What do I do when I read such articles? Nothing. Many of these articles have no take away for me. Generally none.

Its one thing to have a contrary opinion and quite another to say, Ignorance is Bliss. In the recent debate on SIP’s, the one question that was tossed up regularly was, well, what are the other choices anyway.

But when I did provide those choices, those were tossed away as if I had committed some cardinal sin by advocating things that others don’t (buying a random stock every month for instance) believe in.

When NSE got started, there was a hue and cry by the other exchanges who felt short changed but today, when one looks at the history, one cannot but accept that 1994 was the start of a new revolution when it came to increased transparency and better investor protection.

Mutual funds as a whole charge thousands of Crores per year to manage money and those that are higher up the ladder would not want anything to change. But change is one thing that is guaranteed and while some things may take time, Change is guaranteed.

If you are reading this blog, you are one of the very few enlightened investors who believe in understanding finance better than the man on the street. All I can say is, May your Tribe increase. We need more voices and more opinions, not less.