Academic Identity
I am assistant professor of Sociology at Barnard College. My book (and my dissertation research) is a comparative study of technology and futures trading, an ethnography of open outcry and electronic traders. My current research is on how art specialists price cultural commodities, particularly how categories and commensuration work in the secondary/resale fine arts market. I teach courses in economic sociology, organizations, and gender.
Professional Identity
I occasionally consult, focusing on organizational change, the future of technology and financial markets, and environmental markets. I do strategic assessments of markets, technology and organizational design, with qualitative and quantitative components. If you are interested, please email me.
Personal Identity
I grew up outside Chicago, and went to school(s) at Wesleyan University, USC, and Northwestern University. I currently live in New York, with a partner who is a marketing manager for an educational nonprofit. I love movies, like to cook, and I can do a mean lindy swing out. I am INTP.
Welcome! This blog is mostly about markets, culture, organizations, as well as other more rambling kinds of things. You can certainly browse, and I welcome comments. If you prefer a feed reader, you can subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
January 7, 2009
Contemporary art, content, prices
Filed under: Art, Markets — Peter @ 8:19 am
There is a wonderful discussion of the subtle differences between modern/contemporary figurative artists over at Illustration Art. Figurative art in this case being nudes (so if you are offended by high art nudes, move on).
The crux of the issue is the difference between Adrian Gottlieb and Job Currin. The former artist is, arguably, technically superior to the latter, and yet Currin’s paintings routinely sell for a couple orders of magnitude more than Gottlieb’s. IMHO, the difference rests in Currin’s engagement with a perspective (sure, call this postmodern self-referential irony if you like), while Gottlieb’s interest is in making art that feels powerful in its representation of women’s form and leaves it at that. Why the first is fancy high art and the second is merely technical illustration is an excellent question.
Once you start to try to gauge the art world by making arguments over the content of the art itself, you may find yourself with very few solid foundations - this is the insight from Howard Becker’s Art World’s (among others). But there is something about the willingness to argue over art content and not just art conventions that feels meatier and healthier than the more distanced sociological approach (an approach I often take myself and find completely useful, to be honest).
In addition to the wonderful comparison in the post, read the comments, moderated by IA’s David Apatoff. They are for the most part thoughtful and extend the thinking of the original post - something comments don’t often do.
Comments (0)December 17, 2008
giving thanks
Filed under: Ramble — Peter @ 8:03 pm
Last week, I flew to Chicago for a day, to be with mom as she required a surgical procedure to test some cells. Ya, we can call this a biopsy.
This week, test results came back that she’s fine (Mmhm. How often does that happen, huh?). Through snark and snivel about life in New York and work in the big bad academy, I want to remember today. Today, I am grateful for the health of my parents.
Ok, back to tasks at hand.
Comments (0)Stock market soars, financial crisis over
Filed under: Financial Crisis — Peter @ 3:16 pm
I’ve had this post title, with nothing in the body of the text, since October 13th. I keep waiting for the perfect moment…
Comments (2)December 16, 2008
GMAC
Filed under: Financial Crisis — Peter @ 12:16 pm
Oh, I’m sorry, did you not notice that the organization that fed most of the profits to GM over the past decade or so was first sold and now trying to back-door into the financial bailout that is the TARP program? No?
Well, let me put you at ease. GMAC is clearly part of the vital infrastructure of our financial system, just like CitiBank and Bank of America…right?
GMAC Financial Services is a global finance company operating in and servicing North America, South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. GMAC specializes in automotive finance, real estate finance, insurance, commercial finance and online banking. As of Dec. 31, 2007, the organization had $249 billion in assets and serviced 15 million customers.
Founded in 1919 as a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Corp., GMAC was established to provide GM dealers with the financing necessary to acquire and maintain vehicle inventories and to provide customers a means by which to finance vehicle purchases. The company’s products and services have since been expanded and now include three primary lines of business: automotive financing, real estate financing and insurance.
On Nov. 30, 2006, GM sold a 51 percent controlling interest in GMAC to a consortium of investors led by Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., a private investment firm, and included Citigroup Inc., Aozora Bank Ltd. and a subsidiary of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Honestly, if this doesn’t give you confidence that everything is going to be OK, I don’t know what will. I mean, auto financing, real estate financing, and insurance. That’s a heady mix of opportunity!
At least I’m sure it’s not just a ploy for Cerberus Capital Management to cash in on tax-payer loot, right? As noted in just a few short months ago: “Chrysler is still recovering from its split a year ago from its German partner, Daimler, and is undergoing a big revamping under Cerberus. Top executives at Cerberus have said they are determined to fix the company and that their $7.4 billion investment will pay off. A Cerberus spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday that it remained confident in its management of Chrysler and GMAC. ‘No one is pleased with current market conditions,’ he said. ‘However, Cerberus is a patient investor and not a market timer, and we take a long-term view of our investments. Our funds are structured accordingly.’”
Long-term view indeed.
Comments (1)Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens
Filed under: Ramble — Peter @ 11:30 am
These are a few of my favorite things, mostly 2008:
Drop Box, a ‘cloud’ storage site. On a Mac it looks just like any other folder, except it syncs across whatever computers you happen to use. Combine it with the uber-paranoia program TrueCrypt, and you can create an incredibly secure way to share files across the web.
Bloons Tower Defense 3. Time-waster. I can do gold on almost every level except that last one…hrmph.
Sigur Rios’ Gobbledigook. NSFW video, love the song, reminds you what it is like to be mid-20s (even if, like me, you never actually pranced in woods).
Jen and my two (1, 2) vlog attempts. They’re amateurish, but fun to do and I’m a little proud of both.
The Money Meltdown and This American Life’s The Giant Pool of Money. Fabuloso attempts to understand the great financial crisis of 2007-
(the former) Bear Stearns’ Everquest Financial IPO. This is the ballsiest and most dishonest attempt to fuck the public in order to get out of its own subprime mess that I’ve ever seen. They created a shell company, dumped their worst assets into it, then tried to go public and sell it to investors. Failed IPO, failed company, Epic FAIL. (here’s the SEC filing). Be sure to check out the section on ‘risk factors’ starting on p. 17: “Our financial performance is sensitive to changes in overall economic conditions and may affect our ability to pay dividends on our shares.” Bwaaahahahaahahaha. “We own primarily ABS CDOs and CLOs. Our ABS CDOs hold primarily RMBS and to a lesser extent CMBS, synthetic asset-backed securities and other asset-backed securities. A downturn in overall economic conditions could lead to an increase in the default rates of residential or commercial mortgages, which would have a negative effect on the quality of the assets collateralizing these securities” Hooohohooooooowahahahahah….(whew, gotta stop laughing, starting to hurt). These assholes should not be bankrupt. They should be in jail.
Ina Garten’s Rosemary Cashews.
The amazingly fun to see Sartorialist blog, fashion and style without irony.
Blueprint. Grid-based CSS design.
Canada! (well, the song, not the video).
Patrick Winston’s How to Speak, in 13 parts.
The Superest, and XKCD.
And finally, Emergency Go Bags! We put together the urban bag, and it is like a small but significant part of my brain finally stopped holding its breath. If I can get my Flu Pre-pack together anytime soon, another part will probably do the same.
Comments (0)December 15, 2008
unknown unknown unknowns
No Comments . Filed under: Ambiguity, Financial Crisis, Markets
I had a couple of interesting discussions with hedge fun friends this past weekend, who are fairly concerned with the latest bit of bad news (incidentally, one noted that people who invest in funds that invest in funds are, in fancy financial terms, ‘morons’).
More interesting was a bit of thought on how much risk [...]
Final Exam questions
6 Comments . Filed under: Ramble
This is my final from my Sociology of US Economic Life class. They get the questions in advance, and I’m choosing 3 for the final..
1. Stiglitz (Globalization and its Discontents) argues that there is a “Washington
Consensus” between the IMF and World Bank that directs most of the global efforts
towards international aid and development. What is [...]
December 13, 2008
Abstract finance: Securitization
No Comments . Filed under: Abstract Finance, Technology
One basic idea to help understand contemporary finance is securitization. To explain what securitization and how it works, first think about the following: what happens when you and your best friend decide to open a business together. How are you going to divvy up responsibilities, management decisions, profits, and losses?
One way is to just decide, [...]
December 12, 2008
Cue music
No Comments . Filed under: Ramble
Feeling down? Need some inspiration?
Now, go get ‘em!
December 7, 2008
The skill of gymnastics. The kill of karate. Master of…gymkata!
4 Comments . Filed under: Ramble
When they make akaratedemia, I’m looking forward to fending off a bunch of eastern Europeans with a thousand paper cuts and my katana of knowledge.
(just so lucky that pommel horse was installed a few years back…)
December 1, 2008
Is it really a subprime crisis?
No Comments . Filed under: Markets
I want to argue in a longer post that the financial crisis should not be thought of a problem with subprime loans, nor a problem of leverage (so consider this a teaser/placeholder). Instead, I think the culprit is the securitization of risk and structured finance. Something down the line would have broke, if it wasn’t [...]
November 25, 2008
Stupid human tricks
No Comments . Filed under: Ramble
If you take your mighty mouse with the annoying, gunked-up trackball, flip it over, and roll the trackball over a clean sheet or two of paper, it’ll pretty much make it work like new.
November 17, 2008
Congratulations, Jeremy
One Comment . Filed under: Ramble
For well-deserved recognition in a super-secret hobby. I’m not a Freese fanboy myself (though I know many), but even I can admit that this feat was impressive in the face of terrific competition.
And to the realization that the pain and pathos of writing speaks to the human condition. And zombies.
October 30, 2008
GYWO
No Comments . Filed under: Ramble
I remember when Get your War On was a comic, but now it’s a Cartoon!.
October 29, 2008
Just a little more politics
One Comment . Filed under: Ramble
I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. I would add that if you’re not reading five thirty-eight’s on the road series, you are missing out.
October 28, 2008
I don’t usually like Halloweeny things, but I do usually like 80s things
No Comments . Filed under: Ramble
Whoa.
October 27, 2008
What to do with a Republican family?
4 Comments . Filed under: Ramble
My politics are my late grandmother’s, who was born in 1917, saw her father lose most everything in the Depression, saw most of her extended relatives get killed in the Holocaust, and who obsessively watched TV news, shouting at the insanity of the world. That is, pretty Democratic.
My siblings, on the other hand, are [...]
public baselining - stock market and CAPM
No Comments . Filed under: Markets
One of the truly underappreciated effects of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is that it created a “whole market” baseline against which really large numbers of people began benchmarking returns.
And the historical returns of the US stock market has been around 10% since 1929.
So there is a massive amount of expectations-generation around [...]
October 22, 2008
Local sociologist makes good
No Comments . Filed under: Management Schools
When Duncan Watts headed off to Yahoo!, I thought, well sure, that makes sense. But now I read that Joel Podolny is heading off from Yale management school to head up Apple University, and I’m wondering if we’ll be seeing a shift from sociologists heading off to management schools to sociologists heading off to corporate [...]
October 21, 2008
This is only going to be funny to someone of a particular generation
No Comments . Filed under: Ramble
Mine.
What I like most are…
No Comments . Filed under: Ramble
the keywords: Undecided Voters; Presidential Campaigns; 2008 Election; Airplane Food; Mothers; Presidents; Humphrey, Hubert
October 13, 2008
Impatience with the morons
5 Comments . Filed under: Markets
Say what you will about Nassim Nicholas Taleb, he has little patience for economists.
I like how the interviewer keeps trying to be evenhanded, even as he kind of hijacks the interview. He has a personality about which it is hard to be indifferent. My uncle told me that while reading his book (The Black [...]
Bose knows customer service
No Comments . Filed under: Ramble
There’s an organizational story about how one little screw makes or breaks the machine, but this is not that. Instead, this post is a shout-out to Bose. Last year, darling partner went hog-wild and got me a pair of noise-canceling headphones. And the cord that connects the headphones to my music device of choice (classic [...]
October 11, 2008
We need to talk
10 Comments . Filed under: Ramble
Yes, we. You. You and me. We need to talk.
First, thank you to those kind souls who donated to my donorschoose challenge. I’d still love for you to give if you have the resources to do so. But I really appreciate those who did, and I’m going to match the current donations up to $100.
More [...]
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