Posted: September 16th, 2017

Karen Ho Quote

Karen Ho Quote

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Discuss this quote from Karen Ho that appeared in “An Anthropologist on What’s Wrong with Wall Street, ” an interview with her by Barbara Kiviat that appeared in Time magazine. July 22, 2009.

What would you want to see change?

“I would hope that folks in the Obama Administration would somehow link bonuses to long-term corporate productivity or long-term shareholder value — long-term meaning four to five years instead of five months or a year — and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act [that separated investment and commercial banking]. These are big reforms, but they’d give you a more stable landscape to make even more changes. Part of what I learned is that the very kinds of daily practices that created the boom in the first place — wanting to book as many deals as possible for short-term bonuses, a workplace structured so that they’re knowingly not there for very long — paved the way for the bust. I talked to bankers who said, “When we do deals like this, we’re probably at the top of the market.” They knew. It’s not simply that busts always follow booms.” Karen Ho.