Markets On Trial

"Bravo! Finally, a stellar group of economic sociologists speak out about the antecedents, processes, and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. Markets on Trial ably combines sharp analytic insights with much needed policy recommendations. Viviana Zelizer, Lloyd Cotsen '50 Professor of Sociology, Princeton University, author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy". "Now that it's clear to just about everyone that there are institutions and organizations behind markets and that both have a major hand in market failures, who are you going to call? Organizational and economic sociologists of course! This book assembles scholars of significant repute from both fields with much to say about why we are where we are today. The messages are provocative and important. It's time to listen to the voices in this timely and important book. At the moment, this book should be on every thinking person's ""to read"" list. Stephen R. Barley, Richard Weiland Professor and Co-Director, Center for Work, Technology and Organization, Stanford University". Markets on Trial is an essential foundation for understanding the Great Recession of 2008-09, and for averting future financial catastrophes. Drawing on research by the era's premier economic sociologists, this volume makes a compelling case for seeing the subprime mortgage disaster, Lehman failure, and financial meltdown as predictable - and thus avoidable - products of free-market ideology, shareholder-value capitalism, misapplied agency-theory, corporate-elite fragmentation, and, ultimately, a massive failure of leadership. Michael Useem, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership and Change, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania