1. Ho notes that a relatively recent trend in capitalism in the US has been the "complete divorce of what is perceived as the best interests of the corporation from the interests of most employees" (3). How has this happened? How does Ho's ethnographic focus allow us to understand these changes in capitalist culture?

2. How do investment bankers' life experiences shape their approaches to business? What role does the instability of high risk and high reward play? How do these become naturalized as inevitable features of the economy or the market?

3. Why is liquidity such an important concept? What role has it played in downsizing?

4. What is the concept of shareholder value? Why has this concept become so significant? What does Ho argue to be its effects?

5. According to Ho, what factors led to the global financial instability of the last several years? What is the relationship between culture and economy in fostering this sense of instability and crisis?

6. How does Ho's analysis of the creation of "the market" compare to Mitchell's account of the making of "the economy"?

7. Based on your reading of Ho's book, what are the benefits and disadvantages of an ethnographic approach to Wall Street?

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu