An Introduction to Karen Ho's Liquidated - A Macat AnthropologyAnalysis

Welcome to the Macat Multimedia Series. A Macat Analysis of Karen Ho’s Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. Is Investment Banking the reaction of firms to an unpredictable market or does the disposable approach bankers employ cause the market to become unpredictable? Karen Ho started her career on Wall Street but went on to become an academic anthropologist examining the idea that in the world of banking "only the best and the brightest" will survive due to the culture within the firms themselves. In Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street Ho examined the following – that bankers are usually well educated and highly-pressured individuals who are hired and fired at the drop of a hat based on how well they performed in the market over a short period of time. Investment banking firms think this is effective, creating the idea of perfect efficiency, but no long term plan has been considered. The market becomes unpredictable as it mimics the culture of the firms it is controlled by, everything becomes disposable and therefore the value of something can change dramatically. Ho points out that the banks themselves don't profit from this unpredictable market either. When markets are down they lay off people and pay the severance fee, only to rehire when they need to. A long term strategy of a steady and overall profitable employee is not considered. Picture a world where you buy and sell what you need instantly and have it appear and disappear just as fast. Meet Jacob. Every object in his life has a button on it so it can be sold instantly. Here’s Jacob who’s just finished eating, so he sells his fridge. He wants to sit down and read, so he buys a book and a chair and they appear immediately. A pattern of buying in accordance to need results in prices adjusting accordingly. For instance, wanting a bed at night time is more expensive than wanting it in the day. People start to live around this reality, eating and sleeping at strange times in order to avoid rising costs. From an immediate perspective Jacob thinks the method is working. He sells his bed and is rewarded with an immediate cash profit. He does not plan for the future, not even acknowledging that he'll get tired again soon and need his bed back – but at what cost? Like the bankers in the city who are fired and then rehired in accordance to immediate need, Jacob has no long term plan and does not actually profit as much as he thinks he is. This can be directly compared to Ho's analysis of Wall Street and the instability of banker's jobs in relation to profit and their contribution to the film rather than their educational pedigree. A more detailed examination of Ho’s ideas can be found in the Macat Analysis.