Liquidated

Reviews / Votes

"Liquidated is a must-read book for anyone interested in how legions of recruits from Ivy League colleges come to espouse and enact the twisted bundle of class interests and market ideology that constitutes neoliberal capitalism." -- Kathryn Dudley American Studies "Liquidated is an interesting description of many of the practices and orientations that exist in large investment banks, one that confirms what the reader may suspect: that these institutions are forcing-grounds for the sort of hubris and invulnerability that goes with the phrase 'Masters of the Universe', the incomprehensible money that sales staff receive, and the idea that they are 'doing God's work'. It also, however, indicates the reverse of the strength of the social studies of finance. Liquidated may help explain why those in investment banks think and operate in the ways that they do." -- James G. Carrier Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute "[A] unique portrait of the industry that asks pertinent questions about constant change, job insecurity, and the banker's identity... Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street asks many questions that those who work in the investment field should ask themselves... Although many in the financial industry will not agree with Ho's hypotheses and conclusions, they will be challenged by the questions she raises and enthralled by the body of fieldwork she presents." -- Janet J. Mangano Financial Analysts Journal "Ho's refreshing ethnography of the daily lives of Wall Street investment bankers ... outlines a web of practices, beliefs and structures that may be vital to understanding what keeps the market system in place despite built-in instabilities." Publishers Weekly "Ho's study shows the intense competitiveness that is instilled in these primarily Ivy League recruits even before they are finished with their Bachelor's degrees. And she examines the myth that stockowners and companies are best served by maximizing shareholder profits. If anything, this book gives faces to the people who work in that abstract entity called Wall Street that seems to affect our world so much of late. I highly recommend it, especially if you have no idea how the world of high finance operates." -- James Franco The Huffington Post "The book contains many wonderful insights, and is a veritable mine of quotations from Wall Street participants... The book is, moreover, extremely well written throughout ... [A]n informed and informative text." -- Brett Christophers Environment and Planning A "Liquidated is what many of us have been waiting for: a serious ethnographic consideration of finance capital. Using the best kinds of cultural and social analysis, Karen Ho gets inside Wall Street assumptions, turning them around to upend each other." -- Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, co-editor of Word in Motion and author of Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection "We're pretty familiar with the economic rationale for the regime of cost-cutting and downsizing throughout corporate America in recent decades. But Karen Ho's research greatly enriches our understanding of how Wall Street's own peculiar culture of transient relationships and relentless competition has contributed to the shareholder revolution. And, along the way, her interviews and fieldwork offer a very revealing picture of the mind of Wall Street. A fascinating and important book." -- Doug Henwood, editor of the Left Business Observer and author of Wall Street: How It Works and For Whom "What could be more timely than this fascinating and highly readable investigation of the culture of Wall Street? With Liquidated, Karen Ho takes us into the workaday world of investment banking before the crisis, showing us the roots of the risk-taking that drew lavish compensation packages and brought the world financial system to the brink of collapse. A significant contribution both to the anthropological and wider social scientific literature on financial markets and globalization, as well as to the urgent public debate over the power of financial institutions in contemporary American society." -- Bill Maurer, author of Pious Property: Islamic Mortgages in the United States "[E]ngaging and hard to put down... Karen Ho's book is a must-read for anyone contemplating joining one of the major global banks... Actually, even faculty of our elite schools are starting to question why so many of their graduates end up in finance. Karen Ho's book should be required reading for students and faculty at these schools." -- Ben Lorica Quant Network "After several decades when anthropologists at last overcame their inhibitions concerning the study of money, Karen Ho's book ... seems to mark a coming of age for the contemporary discipline... The intelligence of its author shines through Liquidated... I found it rewarding to read and reflect on, a landmark in the burgeoning anthropology of money." -- Keith Hart American Ethnologist "Although written for a mostly academic audience, the book becomes easily digestible because of the summaries Ho adds in each section. She connects well the main theme throughout any areas of the book. Ho's views should not be considered 'anti-Wall Street' but viewed as an analysis of Wall Street's effect on the American community and the financial markets. This book should be read by Wall Street investment bankers and corporate managers to better understand the social values and responsibilities of corporations and the role that they play in the American community." -- Linda Kee-Koa International Examiner "Karen Ho has picked an excellent time to publish her fascinating new study ... of Wall Street banks... As field-sites go, Wall Street is not classic anthropological territory: ethnographers typically work in remote, third-world societies... Ho nevertheless embarked on her study in classic anthropological manner: by blending into the background, listening intently, in a non-judgmental way - and then trying to join up the dots to get a 'holistic' picture of how the culture works. That patient ethnographic analysis has produced a fascinating portrait that will be refreshingly novel to most bankers." -- Gillian Tett Financial Times "Karen Ho is my hero... Her ethnography of investment bankers in the late 1990s, Liquidated, depicts the bravado, callousness, and contradictions that are the hallmarks of investment banking culture." -- Mitchel Y. Abolafia American Journal of Sociology "The book's great strength lies in Ho's careful observation of the means by which people succeed or fail on Wall Street, as she punctures many of the assumptions about how markets work." -- Keir Martin Times Literary Supplement