greed is good. greed is right. greed works. [ applause ] auletta: when michael douglas, in the movie, said, "greed is good," i mean, it was a cartoon expression. but there's truth to it. there was a sense that it is okay to be greedy, it is okay to maximize your wealth. what i want to see above all is that this country remains a country where someone can always get rich. brokaw: big companies gobbling up little companies. little companies gobbling up big companies. eight years ago, there were 1,500 corporate takeovers. last year, there were 4,000, involving $200 billion. aug: this type of deal is called a leveraged buyout. the company borrows the money using its assets as collateral for the loan. in return the company issues ious. because the deal is so risky, those ious carry very high interest rates, and they're called junk bonds. now, you may not have heard of michael milken