Wall Street’s liquidity-obsessed culture depends on the liquid, disposable lives of its own bankers

Evidence

The institutional culture of “The Street” is one that not only prides itself on generating liquidity, in the sense that it strives to generate funds and assets that quickly and easily trade (purportedly to provide capital to needy firms and initiatives while earning profit for investors), but also depends and thrives on the “liquid lives” of investment bank workers themselves (4–13). — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 174

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Ho’s conceptual move of extending ‘liquidity’ from assets to the lives of workers — a metaphorical redefinition the chapter will build on.
• XREF: Ho’s ‘liquid lives’ concept pairs with Bauman’s Liquid Modernity for the broader cultural financialization thesis. — connects to: Financial liquidity grows by making social relations themselves precarious and liquid. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 171; Financialization is how society gets liquidated into marketable commodities — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 566; Financier culture forms inside a homosocial world of risk norms and chronic overwork. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 87 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Financier culture forms inside a homosocial world of risk norms and chronic overwork. #corroborates (0.82) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 87
• Financialization is how society gets liquidated into marketable commodities #expands (0.78) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 566
• Wall Street insiders acknowledged the ‘bad apples’ excuse was pervasive self-deception #corroborates (0.72)