Liquidated
An Ethnography of Wall Street
Published on 13. July 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
392 pages
978-0-8223-4599-2 (ISBN)
Description
Financial collapses-whether of the junk bond market, the Internet bubble, or the highly leveraged housing market-are often explained as the inevitable result of market cycles: What goes up must come down. In Liquidated, Karen Ho punctures the aura of the abstract, all-powerful market to show how financial markets, and particularly booms and busts, are constructed. Through an in-depth investigation into the everyday experiences and ideologies of Wall Street investment bankers, Ho describes how a financially dominant but highly unstable market system is understood, justified, and produced through the restructuring of corporations and the larger economy. Ho, who worked at an investment bank herself, argues that bankers' approaches to financial markets and corporate America are inseparable from the structures and strategies of their workplaces. Her ethnographic analysis of those workplaces is filled with the voices of stressed first-year associates, overworked and alienated analysts, undergraduates eager to be hired, and seasoned managing directors. Recruited from elite universities as "the best and the brightest," investment bankers are socialized into a world of high risk and high reward. They are paid handsomely, with the understanding that they may be let go at any time. Their workplace culture and networks of privilege create the perception that job insecurity builds character, and employee liquidity results in smart, efficient business. Based on this culture of liquidity and compensation practices tied to profligate deal-making, Wall Street investment bankers reshape corporate America in their own image. Their mission is the creation of shareholder value, but Ho demonstrates that their practices and assumptions often produce crises instead. By connecting the values and actions of investment bankers to the construction of markets and the restructuring of U.S. corporations, Liquidated reveals the particular culture of Wall Street often obscured by triumphalist readings of capitalist globalization.
Reviews / Votes
"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) "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 (Huffington Post) "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) "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 (TLS) "[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) "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) "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) "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) "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) "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) "[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)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
1 photograph, 2 tables, 2 maps
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
593 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8223-4599-2 (9780822345992)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2009
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€218.99
Available for download
Person
Karen Ho is Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Minnesota.
Content
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Anthropology Goes to Wall Street 1
1. Biographies of Hegemony: The Culture of Smartness and the Recruitment and Construction of Investment Bankers 39
2. Wall Street's Orientation: Exploitation, Empowerment, and the Politics of Hard Work 73
3. Wall Street Historiographies and the Shareholder Value Revolution 122
4. The Neoclassical Roots and Origin Narratives of Shareholder Value 169
5. Downsizers Downsized: Job Insecurity and Investment Banking Corporate Culture 213
6. Liquid Lives, Compensation Schemes, and the Making of (Unsustainable) Financial Markets 249
7. Leveraging Dominance and Crises through the Global 294
Notes 325
References 353
Index 369
Introduction: Anthropology Goes to Wall Street 1
1. Biographies of Hegemony: The Culture of Smartness and the Recruitment and Construction of Investment Bankers 39
2. Wall Street's Orientation: Exploitation, Empowerment, and the Politics of Hard Work 73
3. Wall Street Historiographies and the Shareholder Value Revolution 122
4. The Neoclassical Roots and Origin Narratives of Shareholder Value 169
5. Downsizers Downsized: Job Insecurity and Investment Banking Corporate Culture 213
6. Liquid Lives, Compensation Schemes, and the Making of (Unsustainable) Financial Markets 249
7. Leveraging Dominance and Crises through the Global 294
Notes 325
References 353
Index 369