Is Greed Back Again?

See the latest issue of Briefings at newsstands or read in our new format here.

By: Arianne Cohen

“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, for money, for love, knowledge—has marked the upward surge of mankind.”

Few speeches in movies have had an impact as great as the one that an avaricious character, Gordon Gekko, made at a shareholder meeting in the 1987 movie Wall Street. Never mind that it was a riff on a real-life commencement speech by the late Ivan Boesky, a stock trader who was later fined $100 million for insider trading. Both were speaking at a special time, when Reaganomics reigned and deregulation was the name of the game.

Wall Street was a critical and box-office success, earning Michael Douglas, playing the oily lead, an Academy Award. The New York Times called the film “an upscale morality tale to entertain achievers.” In that demographic, it created a commotion by articulating the greed-first perspective. Since then, Gekko’s popularity has risen and fallen every dozen years or so. He was vilified again during the Clinton years, then revisited as possibly redeemable by the director Oliver Stone in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010.

Today, the iconic character’s admirers flourish. Nearly 40 years after his debut, Gordon Gekko Halloween costumes are a standby and Michael Douglas himself says that Gekko is back in vogue again: Fans still often call him “Gekko,” he has said, and tell him he’s “the man.” “I have to always remind them I was the villain,” he has noted.

Experts say the real lesson of Gekko’s fluctuating popularity is the ways in which profit-minded corporate leaders fall in and out of favor. Admitting to being a Gekko fan in the corporate America of 2024 is a major no-no. “There’s a heightened awareness that disregarding the societal impact of corporate actions poses significant risks for everyone,” says Michal Strahilevitz, a professor of marketing at Saint Mary’s College of California.

While a few people may still believe that profits are all that really matter, she says, they keep that part quiet. “Companies are increasingly judged on the triple bottom line: people, profits, and the planet,” she says. Still, the question remains: With pressures growing on firms to boost earnings, is Gekko about to make his latest comeback?

Photo Credits: 20th Century Fox