QOTD: There are Shareholders and then there are Share Holders

The Epicurean Dealmaker notes that the stock market “game” is irrevocably rigged against the individual investor, and the best thing anyone can do is realise that is so:

I believe [Leo E. Strine Jr, vice chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery]’s analysis should conclusively disabuse participants in the current debate over financial regulatory reform of two related notions….The second is the canard that all public shareholders are alike, and they all share the same interests and motivations.

Realizing that the second of these is false, and that Fidelity Investments and SAC Capital do not have the same investment timeframe and objectives as Aunt Millie or even the Ohio Teachers Pension Fund, would have a highly salutary effect on the beliefs and behavior of truly long-term shareholders.

If nothing else, getting Aunt Millie to realize she is the only one in the shark tank without a safety cage should do her a world of good. [emphasis mine]

Read the whole thing, as well as Mr. Strine’s piece in the NYT’s DealBook that inspired it, for a glimpse of the soft, white underbelly of corporate governance and management.