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.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
