Wall Street and Reagan's America

Question for Discussion: What does the film,
Wall Street (1987), tell us about American culture
and society in the 1980s?

Reading: Boesky, "Berkeley Graduation Address" (Web);
Newsweek, "The Year of the Yuppie"; (Web)
Hertzberg, "The Short , Happy Life of the Yuppie" (Web)

Video: Wall Street (1987)

Critical Reviews of Wall Street (1987)

Yuppies and Yuppie Culture in the
1980s and 1990

The Yuppie's dilemma: Economic Insecurity
and Downsizing
The Scum-Sucking Yuppie Materialist
A Yuppie's Prayer
..................................................................
The Corporate Scandal Sheet
Behind the Enron Scandal
The Enron Affair
Wall Street's Den of Thieves
1986: Time Ivan Boesky Cover
James Stewart: Den of Thieves (1992)

President Reagan's Economic Programs

Where Reagan Went Wrong

The Global Economy and the Reagan Revolution

Reagan's Economic strategy to renew America

The Reagan Years- A Statistical Overview

The Decline of the American Dream
in the 1980s

The Global Economy and the Decline
of the American Dream

The Maquiladora Program Its Challenges
Ahead

"Greed is all right, I want you to
know that, I think greed is healthy.
You can be greedy and still feel good
about yourself."
Ivan Boesky, speaker at the School of Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley; later
sentenced to three years in federal prison.

"What's intriguing about "Wall Street" - what may cause the most discussion in the weeks to come - is that the movie's real target isn't Wall Street criminals who break the law. Stone's target is the value system that places profits and wealth and the Deal above any other consideration. His film is an attack on an atmosphere of financial competitiveness so ferocious that ethics are simply irrelevant, and the laws are sort of like the referee in pro wrestling - part of the show. "
...Roger Ebert, Review of Wall Street

Gordon Gekko : " The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own."

Gordon Gekko : "The point is ladies and gentlemen 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 it's forms - greed for life, for money, 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. Thank you. "

1. Is Gordon Gekko's larger goal the money he makes on his deals or making the deal and beating someone else out of their money?

Bud: How much is enough?
Gekko: It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.

2. Is Gordon Gekko like Donald Trump, who wrote in his autobiography, The Art of the Deal, " that money no longer interests him very much....[I am] more motivated by the challenge of a deal and by the desire to win."

3. What does Gordon Gekko mean in his speech to the Teldar board when he say: "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works."

4. Why is Bud Fox so attracted to Gordon Gekko? Why does he want to be a player?
Gekko: I'm gonna make you rich, Bud Fox. I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing.
5. Why do "players" need to wear good suits, own fancy highrise apartments, own the best artwork, and generally flaunt their wealth? These are the same characteristics associated with Yuppies. What does this tell us about the Yuppie stereotype?

6. Does Gordon Gekko earn his money honestly? If he uses "insider information" to buy stocks that
are sure things, is he really playing by the rules?
Is Wall Street (1987) suggesting that stock speculators like Gekko are sharks feeding
off the gullible average investor and mismanaged
corporations?

7. Why does Bud Fox keep telling his father to get a better suit? Why is dress so important to Bud?

8. How does Wall Street illustrate what William Palmer calls "the yuppie drive to make large amounts of money quickly, to succeed in a ruthless competitive world, to acquire the most expensive material goods, to spend rather than save, to party extremely hard as a reward for working extremely hard, to sacrifice human relationships for one's job"?

9. Why are yuppies like Bud Fox and Darien Taylor willing to give up or risk their personal relationships, their emotional integrity, and their characters for money and power and social status?

10. Why does Bud Fox turn against Gordon Gekko in the end? Does he side with his father's principles of character, integrity, and honor over Gekko's obsession with money and power at any cost?

11. What does Bud Fox mean when he tells Gordon Gekko that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't become Gordon Gekko because he was still just Bud Fox?

12. When Bud Fox turns against Gekko, Darien tells him that Gekko will destroy him and take everything he has. Is this the ultimate yuppie nightmare that money, success, power, and status will be pulled out from under them despite what they do?

13. Did Gekko really expect Bud Fox to stand by while his father's company, Bluestar Airlines, was bought and sold off into pieces so that Gekko could make a killing?

14. Is the American economy described by Gordon Gekko really a social darwinian "survival of the fittest" world in which the strongest prey on and destroy the weak and innocent?

Gekko: The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own.

15. One of the larger yuppie fears portrayed in Wall Street is the fear that if you're not a player, if you're not on top of the money game, then you will be one of the losers, one of a great mass of Americans who are being screwed by the players and the money men. Is this why Gordon Gekko tells Bud he can either be a player or be nothing?

16. Bud's father, Carl Fox, says: "Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others." Is Bud Fox afraid that the only way to make it is to become a player because the only way to really make it in this world is to "live off the buying and selling of others"? If you're not preying on others and exploiting others weaknesses, then you are just one of the prey for the stronger, more ruthless players.

17. Why is money and power so much more attractive to Gordon Gekko than love, family, and emotional and psychological integrity? Does Gekko see love and emotional relationships as weaknesses?

18. Does American society really value those who work hard, produce, and create even though most of these people are not wealthy, powerful, and socially prominent? Why are Americans so fascinated with men like Donald Trump?