Bull markets and bull sessions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12721272 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Douglas E Allen (Bucknell University, corresponding author), Richard S Allen (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), Elton G Mcgoun (Bucknell University) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 15-31 |
| Publication date | 2012-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Culture and Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1475-9551 • E-ISSN: 1477-2760 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14759551.2011.631338 |
| OpenAlex | W2071606681 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 23 |
Frankfurt's (2005. On bullshit. Princeton: Princeton University Press) having given the term ‘bullshit’ philosophical respectability is quite timely for an understanding of the financial services industry. There is no doubt a preponderance of financial bullshitting nowadays, much more in fact than in the not so distant past. Some of this might indeed be as harmful as Frankfurt claims bullshit can be. On the other hand, in financial services as in many other human activities, bullshit is not only inevitable, but it also performs a variety of useful functions for individuals and for society. As a species, we may not have evolved to the point of making optimal probabilistic decisions in the stock market, as behavioral finance consistently illustrates, but we have certainly evolved enough to bullshit about it. We have also evolved the ability to detect financial bullshit, which may serve to mitigate its deleterious consequences. Keywords: culturebullshitfinancemarket efficiencysocialization Notes The term ‘financial actors’ will be used throughout to denote those who provide financial advice regarding stock and mutual fund selection as well as those who consume this advice. The slim book is a very slightly revised version of an article which originally appeared in 1986 in the journal Raritan (Frankfurt Citation1986) and was subsequently reprinted in The Importance of What We Care About (Frankfurt Citation1988). There may be a significant difference between oral and written cultures. Talking bullshit may be regarded as a less harmful practice than writing bullshit. England's transition from an oral to a written culture transformed the nature of ‘truth’ (Green Citation1999). Greek also has a word for this activity, psemata. The word is translated into English as lie, but it does not carry the negative connotation that ‘lie’ does (Barnes Citation1994). At one time, the English language made a similar distinction to these. The Middle English word ‘truth’ meant a contract, that is, a social arrangement. ‘Sooth’ meant accordance with the facts. Over time, ‘truth’ came to acquire this second meaning (Green Citation1999). This is of course Cohen's (Citation2002) exemplar of bullshit and the phenomenon which Smith (Citation1971) specifically condemned. Ironically, Wittgenstein, who was so irritated at Fania Pascal's bullshitting, has been accused of doing the same. ‘[I]n what may be a dig at Wittgenstein, [Popper] was scathing about the turgid “German” approach in which “every intellectual wants to show that he is in possession of all the ultimate secrets of the world”’ (Edmonds and Eidinow Citation2001, 55). There might be a parallel here with the inability of an expert at any task to explain their expertise (Dreyfus and Dreyfus Citation1986), but no one has consistently proven to be a stock market ‘expert’. But of course this paper itself might simply be taking the process up to another level by bullshitting about bullshitting about bullshit – a prominent characteristic of post-modernity being reflexivity. It should be noted that in this section we are not referring to financial advisors who follow modern portfolio theory and assist their clients in fashioning a diversified portfolio of assets that are appropriate to their needs
Economics · Financial market · Financial services · Minor (academic · Political science · Sociology · Stock (firearms · Variety (cybernetics · Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis · Computer Science · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Financial Markets and Investment Strategies · History · Law · Artificial Intelligence · Finance
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2023 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |