Posted on 09/17/2010 6:46:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Twenty-three years ago in Wall Street, Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas created a memorable character, Gordon Gekko, who symbolized everything that was wrong about American business. Gekko begins by making his famous case for greed, which has since entered the vernacular:
"greed is good. Greed works, greed is right. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all its forms, greed for life, money, love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. . ."
The film then reveals the wages of greed. Gekko takes over an airline by sweet-talking the union and some insider trading, then double-crosses the workers by trying to carve up the company, and ends up headed for jail for insider trading. Along the way he explains:
“[I]t’s all about bucks. It’s a zero-sum game. Somebody wins and somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. Like magic. . . . Capitalism at its finest. The richest one percent of this country owns half the country’s wealth . . . You’ve got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing; I own.”
Stone and Gekko/Douglas are back in the sequel, Money Never Sleeps, which opens next week. According to Wikipedia, Gekko’s just out of prison after 23 years (in the real world a long time for a little insider trading, but apparently not in Hollywood). Gekko is kinder and gentler. Now he’s prescient, not just greedy, predicting a crash. He is trying to help his estranged daughter’s fiancé Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a proprietary trader for Bear Stearns/Lehman-like Keller Zabel, track down Jake’s mentor’s killer.
This time the devil is the manager of Jake’s hedge fund, Bretton James (Josh Brolin).
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.forbes.com ...
I still never saw what was so bad about Gordon Gekko. His speech regarding all the vice presidents and the high debt levels at the one company he wanted to take over was right on the mark.
Gordon Gecko for president?
Capitalists do much more than "own": they create wealth -- for everyone.
I'm not sure that Oliver Stone understands that or tries to communicate that.
RE: I still never saw what was so bad about Gordon Gekko
You tell me if what Gekko did was right and ethical, and if someone did something similar today, he ought to be jailed...
Bud (Charlie Sheen) pitches a new idea to Gekko, to buy Bluestar Airlines and expand the company, with Bud as president, using savings achieved by union concessions. Bud persuades his father, Carl (Martin Sheen), who dislikes Gekko, to get union support for the plan and push for the deal. Gekko agrees to Bud’s plan and informs Carl that he will support Bud on this deal.
Things change when Bud learns that Gekko, in fact, plans to sell off Bluestar’s assets, leaving Carl and the entire Bluestar staff unemployed, and of course pocket the profit from the sale.
Although this would leave Bud very rich, he is angered by Gekko’s deceit, and racked with the guilt of being an accessory to Bluestar’s destruction.
Bud chooses his father over his mentor and resolves to disrupt Gekko’s plans. He angrily breaks up with Darien, who refuses to plot against Gekko, a former lover and the architect of her career.
ping
Greed is good IMO, its the reason this keyboard is here I am typing on now.
With the new financial services bill, the rats have assured that the only greed on Wall Street will the rat approved greed. Rat approved greed requires payoffs to rat politicians, labor cartels, trial lawyers, racial hustlers, and other rat favored groups. This style of greed is unchecked by competition. Only losses at the ballot box can control this new greed.
Class warfare foments envy, a force without opposing counter forces. The rats have convinced a large part of the population that the major purpose of government is to steal the income and property of others. This mob now thinks that a free lunch exists. This mob refuses to pay federal income taxes, receives large amounts of welfare (including tax welfare), and screams for their right to confiscate property their rat masters. The age of free loading and moral hazards is upon us.
His speech follows the speech by Gregory Peck's character, who is the founder of the company that is the target of Larry's takeover bid.
Both speeches are shown in this 12-minute clip. Larry's speech is one of the best movie speeches of all time, if you ask me.
I always admired the Gecko Character.
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