Greed is good (again)

 Blandt firsernes wannabe-yuppies med forkærlighed for in-your-face kapitalisme–og ja, der findes nok en enkelt eller to blandt Punditokraterne og vores læsere–var Gordon Gekko fra den ikke just særligt pro-kapitalistiske Oliver Stones 1987-film Wall Street om end ikke en helt så dog en slags ikon, som man på småpubertær vis kunne genere venstreorienterede venner og lærere med at idyllisere.  Sådan en slags lavpandet John Galt.

Og til dem af os, er der (måske) godt nyt: Fortune Magazine fortæller således:

December marks the 20th anniversary of the movie Wall Street, and the fanfare has begun.

EVER SINCE Gordon Gekko ran afoul of the SEC at the end of Oliver Stone’s 1987 classic, Wall Street, diehard fans have been wondering when the LBO kingpin would resurface. Well, the wait is over. A sequel is in the works–with Douglas to star–and there have already been two different story lines developed for the film, tentatively called Money Never Sleeps. And each speaks to how finance has changed since the original’s release.

Stone, whose father’s brokerage firm inspired the original, was involved in the sequel at first but pulled out to pursue other projects. In a script Stone conceived with the film’s original screenwriter, Stanley Weiser, Gekko gets out of jail, sets up a hedge fund in China, and tries to reunite with his son. (For readers who never wore red suspenders, in the original, Gekko attempts a takeover of Bluestar Airline before being charged with insider trading.)

But in a chat with FORTUNE about the movie–which turns 20 in December and is being commemorated with a special-edition DVD–Stone says Gekko’s time may be over anyway. “Gordon Gekko couldn’t manipulate the markets like he did back then,” he says. “It’s so big, so huge, that to be a minor player, you need to be a major bank.”

The current screenplay that is in development with 20th Century Fox is being written by former New Yorker scribe Stephen Schiff and is still a work in progress. But Schiff says that he and producer Ed Pressman have met with moguls in London, sheikhs in Dubai, and hedge funders in New York to give the aging Gekko global flair.”

Så drenge (og evt. piger): Find jeres manchetknapper og røde seler frem og gentag efter mig: “Greed is good”:

The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated.

In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good.

Greed is right.

Greed works.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.

And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

5 thoughts on “Greed is good (again)

  1. US

    Så når danske folkepensionister gennem DF forhindrer skattelettelser og ønsker sig endog meget godt betalt for den lille omlægning vi har set, er det bare fint og helt i liberalismens ånd?Grådighed er mange ting, og grådighed er ikke godt i sig selv. Egoisme og individualisme er to vidt forskellige ting. En af de vægtige pointer imod velfærdsstaten er vel netop, at den fremmer egoisme og grådighed, og underminerer det man lidt kliché kunne kalde befolkningens “samfundsmoral” – hvorfor samarbejde om at få tingene gjort, hvis vi alle kan få staten til at gøre alting for os?

    Svar
  2. JJA

    @USGrådighed og egoisme kan vel kun idylliseres så længe man ikke ligger andre til last. Så nej det er selvfølgelig ikke i liberalismens ånd at udøve egoisme når man der med ligger andre til last.

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  3. Mikael

    Hvad forstår du konkret ved at ligge andre til last? Er det at formaste sig til at køre ud på motorvejen i myldertiden? Det er helt åbenbart, at man ligger andre til last!

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  4. Lisbet

    @US: Grådighed i den kapitalistiske forstand, dealer-/pengemandsforstanden, betyder vel blot at maksimere sin egen nytte. Simpelt, intuitivt og moralsk forsvarligt. Vist endda også godt for samfundet, hvis nogen bekymrer sig om den detalje.Jubii, glæder mig til opfølgeren. Dog venter jeg lige med de røde seler indtil de er at finde i Eurowoman.

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  5. JJA

    @ Mikael, Nej, det vil nok værre bedre at udtrykke det, at så længe du ikke krænker andres selvejerskab, kan du gøre hvad du vil, der i blandt værre grådig eller egoistisk. Dermed ikke sagt at jeg prisværdiger egoisme i en hver henseende. På det punkt kan jeg godt følge US, egoisme og liberalisme er ikke det samme.

    Svar

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