The new movie, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps never quite answers that one, though Gordon Gekko now dubs it "legal." Went to see this over the weekend and found it great. Perhaps out of sheer nostalgia I would have liked it, but Gekko's condemnation of "speculation" and references to tulip mania reminded me of John Galbraith. Set in the time of the current financial crisis, the movie emphasises the decisions that individuals (such as Susan Sarandon's nurse turned over-leveraged real estate investor) and banks (such as the investment firms peddling bad paper) made that led us to the crisis. Though Gekko, without cash and out peddling a book, is still Gekko, the new twist of creating even larger "bad guys" makes him a bad guy to cheer for. Definitely worth seeing.
- JSM
