Gordon Gekko: America has become a second rate power. Our trade deficit and fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. In the days of the 'free market' when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the shareholders. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the man who built this industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today management has no stake in the company. Altogether these guys sitting up there own a total of less than 3% and where does Mr. Cromwell put his million dollar salary? Certainly not in Teldar stock, he owns less than 1%. You own Teldar Paper, the stockholders, and you are being royally screwed over by these bureaucrats with their steak lunches, golf and hunting trips, corporate jets, and golden parachutes! Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over $200,000 a year. I spent two months analyzing what these guys did and I still can't figure it out.
Gordon Gekko: I am not a destroyer of companies, I am a liberator of them. 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 its forms — greed for life, money, love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind — and greed, mark my words — will save not only Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you.
Gordon Gekko: What the hell do you want?
Bud Fox: I found out about the garage sale down at Bluestar. Why?
Gordon: Last night I was reading Rudy about the story of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Pot. You know what happened? Stuck his nose once too often, and he got stuck.
Bud: Maybe you ought to read him Pinocchio. I thought that you were gonna turn Bluestar around, not upside-down. You fucking used me!
Gordon: Well you're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place.
Bud: But why do you need to wreck this company?!
Gordon: Because IT'S WRECKABLE, allright?! I took another look at it and I changed my mind.
Bud: If these people lose their jobs, they got nowhere to go. My father has worked there for 24 years. I gave him my word!
Gordon: It's all about bucks, kid, and the rest is conversation. Hey Buddy, you're still going to be president, allright! And when the time comes, you're going to parachute out a rich man. And with the money you're gonna make, your dad's never gonna have to work another day in his life.
Bud: So tell me, Gordon — when does it all end, huh? How many yachts can you waterski behind? How much is ENOUGH?
Gordon: [sarcastically while filling up a glass of wine] 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, uh, transferred from one perception to another, like magic. [points to a [painting] This painting here, I bought it 10 years ago for $60,000. I could sell it today for 600. The illusion has become more real, and the more real it becomes, the more desperate they want it. Capitalism at its finest.
Bud: How much is enough, Gordon?
Gordon: [chuckles] The richest 1% of this country owns half our country's wealth: 5 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, is stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got 90% of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, Buddy? It's the free market, and you're a part of it. [smugly] Yeah, you've got that killer instinct. [chuckles] Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you.
Bud: Obviously.
Gordon: Aw Buddy, come on, look I was gonna tell you about it, allright? Calm down, allright. We'll go up my apartment tonight, have a little dinner, you bring Darien.
Bud: No, I can't.., I can't make it tonight.
Gordon: Hey Buddy, are you with me? I need to know if you're with me.
Bud: I'm with you, Gordon.
Gordon: [Gordon pats on his back] Natalie, I'll be right there. [grabs a phone and dials to Ollie]
Ollie: [over the phone] Yeah?
Gordon: [speaks on the phone] Yeah, Ollie. You tell them, I want zip-locked mouths on the Bluestar deal or I'll personally come down there and rip out their fucking throats!\\
Bud Fox: I found out about the garage sale down at Bluestar. Why?
Gordon: Last night I was reading Rudy about the story of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Pot. You know what happened? Stuck his nose once too often, and he got stuck.
Bud: Maybe you ought to read him Pinocchio. I thought that you were gonna turn Bluestar around, not upside-down. You fucking used me!
Gordon: Well you're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky to get together in the first place.
Bud: But why do you need to wreck this company?!
Gordon: Because IT'S WRECKABLE, allright?! I took another look at it and I changed my mind.
Bud: If these people lose their jobs, they got nowhere to go. My father has worked there for 24 years. I gave him my word!
Gordon: It's all about bucks, kid, and the rest is conversation. Hey Buddy, you're still going to be president, allright! And when the time comes, you're going to parachute out a rich man. And with the money you're gonna make, your dad's never gonna have to work another day in his life.
Bud: So tell me, Gordon — when does it all end, huh? How many yachts can you waterski behind? How much is ENOUGH?
Gordon: [sarcastically while filling up a glass of wine] 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, uh, transferred from one perception to another, like magic. [points to a [painting] This painting here, I bought it 10 years ago for $60,000. I could sell it today for 600. The illusion has become more real, and the more real it becomes, the more desperate they want it. Capitalism at its finest.
Bud: How much is enough, Gordon?
Gordon: [chuckles] The richest 1% of this country owns half our country's wealth: 5 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, is stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got 90% of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, Buddy? It's the free market, and you're a part of it. [smugly] Yeah, you've got that killer instinct. [chuckles] Stick around pal, I've still got a lot to teach you.
Bud: Obviously.
Gordon: Aw Buddy, come on, look I was gonna tell you about it, allright? Calm down, allright. We'll go up my apartment tonight, have a little dinner, you bring Darien.
Bud: No, I can't.., I can't make it tonight.
Gordon: Hey Buddy, are you with me? I need to know if you're with me.
Bud: I'm with you, Gordon.
Gordon: [Gordon pats on his back] Natalie, I'll be right there. [grabs a phone and dials to Ollie]
Ollie: [over the phone] Yeah?
Gordon: [speaks on the phone] Yeah, Ollie. You tell them, I want zip-locked mouths on the Bluestar deal or I'll personally come down there and rip out their fucking throats!\\
