The study of accusations is a process of sniffing and finding. There is “hard latent value” to be found in the art of the intermediate, between weak informal complaints and strong criminal charges and sanctions. Allegations in this intermediary or “goldilocks” position help reveal the moral order of the market in which violations of the code of business conduct evoke reactions that tend to publicly announce, and thereby reinforce, the norms.

Accusations pervade our news headlines and public affairs, but how should we evaluate these when they occur in economic transactions? All established markets operate with institutional rules governing the roles and responsibilities of market actors and the rules of exchange. Here we see that something has gone afoul in business and uncover the rules and understandings governing economic exchange by finding where and how people take umbrage and complain about the behavior of their exchange partners. Taking umbrage directs us to situations in which people complain that things are not as they should be, thereby revealing the rules of exchange, their interests, and their ideas about misrepresentation and misdirection.