Dive into the archives.
- Online Equity Message-Boards as Virtual Workteams
To paraphrase Tolstoy, all buoyant stocks are the same; while the issues sinking fast are all different. Two types of decline are notable: the first is cacophonous— in which too much information and noise are continuous, as with BP stock during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The other is silent: with the stock’s initial drop [...]
- The Dynamics of Public Blame: BP (and Groupon)
I’ll be discussing the dynamics of blame and BP at the weekly case conference of the William Alanson White Institute, NYC; on February 22 at 10 AM. Here’s the announcement: February 22, 2011 – Blaming BP: Examining the Psychodynamics of Blame Ian Miller, Ph.D., NYU Postdoc & WAWI Org. Prog. The psychodynamics of blame will [...]
- Valuing Selective Attention as We Risk
BP is our tragedian of moment. Our anxieties are priced in the cost of its shares, off 50% since April. As investors, we anticipate significant punitive and reputational damages, eyeballing the $30bn gap between worst-case scenarios and its $20bn escrow fund, puzzling on internal bets between our personal fantasies of corporate resurrection and bankruptcy. What [...]
- The Madoff Metaphor
While the sentiment of moment is harshly judgmental, it is difficult not to think about Madoff as a metaphor of recent times. He has played his role well in the public drama of shock and blame: stoically bearing guilt within the rituals of censure and condemnation. His decision to turn from trading to the fabrication [...]
