In Karen Hos’ Liquidated, she aims to study the relationships between corporate America and the worlds greatest financial center. . . Wall Street. She puts all her three years of research in her ethnography and thus the very first page of chapter one, we can already understand Hos’ determination to understand what Wall Street is all about. The first main theme explained is the relations in Wall Street that are based on a culture of domination of staff members, their irresponsibility dealing with corporate America, and constant changes that occur during this process. Another major theme we see in her ethnography is that Wall Street, first used for the communities wellbeing, is now profit oriented. Recruitment is the very first part of becoming an investment banker. The typical profile of these new recruits are very privileged, elite university graduates who are primarily Euro-American. Although there are some African Americans, Asian Americans, and women found in Wall Street; Ho sees that the higher you climb, the less diverse it tends to get (Ho, 78). Firms pull from 5-10 of the most elite universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and so on and it is these new recruits that are seen as the best and the brightest with the most “smartness”. Part of this has to do with the fact that a persons pedigree is seen to legitimate how that investor will do in the market. New recruits that are fresh out of college are expected to hold the future of corporate America in their hands even if they do not have much real world experience straight out of college. When it comes to social status in Wall Streets’ elite community, it is these great pedigrees that are the ones smiled upon. “They are the elite of Wall Street. Their offices are furn... ... middle of paper ... ...mless and consists of much boasting and proudness. This is a metaphor for corporate America. With much pride and dignity can Wall Street run seamlessly, but there are many problems. They do not care about the future America, like this tribe cares about their future sailors. That is why they build such a strong canoe, to accommodate them. Investment bankers today are not interested in building a stronger economy, they are interested in the most profit boosting short term answers (Ho, 154). Just worrying about their next big bonus than small businesses or mortgages. The ritual that Malinowski describes the tribal people in participating to celebrate this new canoe, can also be seen as the ritual to celebrate a new recruit member becoming a banking investor. Both new canoe and recruit are seen as perfect and hold the future of either the tribe or a corporate America.
Banks, D., Erodes, R. (2004). Dennis Banks and the Rise of the American Indian Movement. Ojibwa Warrior. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.oupress.com/bookdetail.asp?isbn=0-8061-3580-8
Michael Moore’s film of Capitalism: A Love Story is an examination on how much of a financial impact that corporation has on the lives of Americans. Capitalism seems to emulate a love affair gone wrong, with lies, abuse and betrayal towards the American people. Moore moves the film from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan in order to answer the question of what price do Americans pay for the affection of capitalism. There is irony in the title of this film because there is certainly nothing to love about capitalism when families have to pay the price with losing their jobs, their homes and their savings as a result of the risky investments that the rich and powerful have at their disposal. With more than 14,000 jobs being lost, residents being evicted from their homes and banks stealing away families’ savings, one must wonder if there is an upside to capitalism at all. True democracy is the biggest threat to corporate America because of the one person one vote system. In order for this to take place, the growing number of people would have to come together and expose capitalism for what it truly is, a corrupt and greedy system for the wealthy.
To achieve this, “banking firms provide [them] with a way to maintain [their] elite status in society by providing avenues to wealth and power that other professions do not” (179). They leave them unconsciously with an ultimatum, to either continue living their prestigious lifestyle and be the in the top with the elites, or settle for lower than what they’ve worked for, which is any other career path. Students who attend Princeton and Harvard who aspire to become teachers or writers are told they are settling for less than what they deserve and will be “more happy” with an investment banking career. There is a subtle form of manipulation being acted upon prospective students from investment bankers which is hidden by all of the positive, glamorous stigmas of Wall Street. To fully understand Wall Street as a whole, someone must know the small components that make it come together as a whole. This is shown through Karen Ho’s observations such as learning that students at Princeton and Harvard do not need to hold a finance degree to obtain a job on Wall Street. Whereas, Yale and Brown students must have a finance degree and are forced to show their abilities at a higher level than Princeton and Harvard students. Underneath all the dashing appearances and smart conversations on Wall Street, there is a hidden bias and a constant manipulation system in order for them to get what they want. The small components of Wall Street consist of their “small” priorities,
Matt Taibbi, a financial journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine, wrote two articles scorning the fraudulent practices of Goldman Sachs, a global investment banking firm. His articles rely on the use of both extensive economic research and fanciful, if violent, metaphor to expose the crooked behind-the-scene’s deals of the banking powerhouse and translate the goings on into layman’s terms. His analysis of Goldman Sachs and the power it holds over markets, taxpayers, and the government not only provides a counterexample to Adam Smith’s theory of a free market, but also reinforces Max Weber’s ideas of economic power.
This notion of success limits creative innovation of thought and pressures people achieve a careers that they may be interest in (grammar problem?). Ho explores this idea in her essay (qtd Peterson 2002) “It’s been common knowledge that many of [Princeton] undergraduates join the financial realm every year, creating a kind of lighthearted, self-deprecating joke about becoming I-bankers and once hopeful novelists heading to Wall Street” (170). The environment around those students was able to force them to change their career options based on what is considered successful by their peers. Despite This idea of success being narrow and not inclusive to everyone, some students felt the need to give up on their dreams and give in to the pressure. This pressure is not exclusive to elite institutions, society as a whole experiences this pressure when trying to pursue a lesser value endeavors. Davidson explores the idea of exclusivity that is created by society when she says “This is the lesson of attention blindness yet again: If you measure narrowly, you see results just as narrowly. In other words, the more standardized our assessment, the more kids fail” (61). The standardized tests that the educational system uses narrows itself to specific skills and talents that society considers important. It limited what students can achieve based on the talents that they acquire. Artistic talents do not have the same value compared to conventional studies. Similarly, elite institutions like princeton and harvard, have also narrowed down what careers are considered successful or worth pursuing. Ho describes this phenomena in her essay “I found not only that most bankers came from a few elite institutions, but also that most undergraduate and even many graduate students assumed that the only “suitable” destinations for life after Princeton-the only sectors
Hamilton, Stewart and Alicia Micklethwait. "Greed and Corporate Failure: The Lessons from Recent Disasters." New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006. 81-97.
The United States of America, after having been endured the Civil War, had a new adversary that threatened to divide the nation, once again, into the upper-class and the working class. This new adversary were the million-billion corporations that ruled the economy of America. These corporations grew significantly in size and influence after the railroad industry skyrocketed. The men behind these companies, notably, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Rockefeller, were titled “robber barons”, by a majority, and “captains of industry” by some. The impacts of these big businesses were incredibly large, economically and politically, and naturally, Americans responded to these changes in various ways, predominantly battling these so-called “robber barons”
In the article “Don’t Send Your Kids to the Ivy League” by William Deresiewicz, the author speaks about how Ivy League are not a school for only the most intelligent students, but the Ivy League is more of a modern day segregated community for students that are born into wealth, or simply just for the rich.
The Stock Market Crash of 2008 occurred on September 29, 2008. On September 16, Federal Reserve announced it was bailing out insurance giant AIG. On Wednesday, September 17, money market funds lost $144 billion dollars. Prices dropped incredibly, oil dropped the most it was very hard to get oil. The Dow Jones The Stock Market Crash was a very bad time for America. The Stock Market crash influenced The Great Depression although it would have happened in later years if the stock market crash never happened. This was the worst crash in History then 79 years there is another stock market crash the 2008 crash which is also bad (Blumenthal).
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sexuality he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in restitution to any swindled stock buyers of his brokerage firm (A&E Networks Television). Though his lavish spending and berserk party lifestyle was consumed by excessive greed, he displayed both positive and negative aspects of business communications.
This case study is not about Ms. Stewart direct participation with illegal insider trading as the media had steered the public to believe. To begin, Ms. Stewart received a phone call from Ann Armstrong, her assistant, stating that Peter Bacanovic, her stockbroker, “thinks ImClone is going to start trading down.” (Arnold, Beauchamp, Bowie, 2013, p. 390) Although Ms. Stewart was not able to get a hold of Peter, she talked to his assistance, Douglas Faneuil,
Enron, once the darling of American businesses, was named “America’s Most Innovative Company” for six consecutive years by Fortune. This lofty image was, however, quickly tarnished and the company eventually filed for bankruptcy. Over the next few pages I will discuss who and how this Fortune 500 Company went from great to late.
The market crash of 2008 has created a long-term economic hardship for many governments around the world. Moreover, it was the second worst economic disaster on record within the United States; and something that many analysts warn is still impacting on the way that the United States economy operates and continues to grow and develop. As a means of providing a way out of the crisis, the Federal government chose, from a bipartisan standpoint, to increase levels of spending and to quite literally “spend their way out” from this crisis. Understandably, scholars and economists have come to debate whether or not this particular Keynesian approach to the marketplace was logical, whether or not it helped or prolonged
Enron Corp. is a company that reached dramatic heights, only to face a dizzying collapse. The story ends with the bankruptcy of one of America 's largest corporations. Enron 's collapse affected the lives of thousands of employees and shook Wall Street to its core. At Enron 's peak, its shares were worth $90.75, but they plummeted to $0.67 in January 2002 following bankruptcy. To this day, many wonder how such a powerful business disintegrated almost overnight and how it managed to fool the regulators with fake, off-the-books corporations for so long.
Michael Lewis’s The Big Short tells the tale of the 2008 financial crisis from the perspective of a few idiosyncratic characters that saw it coming. Unlike big financial institutions that underestimated the risk of increasingly extending subprime mortgage loans to uncreditworthy customers, Lewis’ characters gauged such risk accurately and anticipated the eventual burst of the housing bubble. Not only did they foresee the inevitable, but they also made a fortune by betting on its happening. Had they conformed to the public sentiment of extreme optimism and confidence in the stability of the real estate market, they would not have reaped immense monetary rewards. Between the lines of The Big Short, there lurks, albeit not too covertly, a message about the benefits of nonconformity. While conformity is often times socially encouraged and applauded, it is important to wonder at times whether going against the flow would be of greater benefit to us or our community. In Michael Lewis’s narrative, defiance of the status quo as a result of skepticism toward financial markets has yielded big payoff, whereas conformity to the widespread denial of the housing market’s unpredictability has incurred massive losses.