Red Herrings
Herring as a noun refers to a kind of fish . It makes good food , and herrings are not red generally . Red herring as an idiom means to do something to divert attention from the real thing , to disguise , to bluff . In the world of spying major red herring operations are mounted to fool the opposition – Le Carre`s novels have outstanding examples, and there are others equally good .
In the world of high – finance , after the Reagan-Thatcher era the traditional prospectus for public issue of shares or other securities began to be called “Red Herring Prospectus”. It mystified me , an old finance hand , and does so even today. A Prospectus of course always fools the public to some degree . But to actually call it a red herring seems to give the game away , admit to the deceit . Finance guys are not exactly famous for self-mockery , let alone voluntary disclosures . And the term was coined by the dons and deans of the now-exposed prima- donna investment banks like Lehman Brothers , Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley, etc. They know their english . So it is not a linguistic mistake . It is going on even today. The “emerging markets” might be apeing it as they ape so much else , but WASPs are doing it in earnest. What does it mean ? Surely it can only be gall . The in-your-face , fuck you attitude – arrogance in plain english. Breathtaking , isn`t it ?
With sheer gall what else are they getting away with ? Time someone sat up , and called spades spades .No ?
Never thought so! Quite a thought provoking piece.
ReplyDeleteThis has puzzled me as well. I have been in the trade doing just that! Yes we wrote the prospectuses for the issues and crammed them with so many true but trivial risk factors that the attention was indeed diverted from the real problems. But it was not officially called that in India when i practised the wily? craft. In the west they had to underline the key bits in red and the terminology was I think used initially informally but now it is very much in the face stuff! I wish it was ironic because some of the slipperiest were producing the stuff.
ReplyDeleteBy the way the red herring is the dried herring or kippers as the English call them and smells the worse.
This smelly business unluckily seems to dominate lot of our life in all spheres.
Poor herrings! Actually they are one of the nutrtious foods as they have the Omega 3 and related acids which are good for us!
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