what do we wall greed the day before an indictment? i m afraid recently we ve called it success. the u.s. economy, which used to be the envy of the world, is in the most serious trouble since the great depression. inflation is rising, while the standard of living is declining. there was tremendous inflation, and not much growth. the country was not in a great depression in 1980, but the united states was in the dumps. on wall street, it was cold, gray, wet, and miserable. there was no comfort to be found outside. and for investors, there was not much inside either. the tickers carried almost nothing but bad news. we d come off a terrible decade for investing. people were skeptical of the stock market. it was a very sleepy wall street back then. most economists expect a serious recession, with at least 2 million more americans losing their jobs. i regret to say that we re in the worst economic mess since the great depression. literally from the
greed is good. greed is right. greed works. when michael douglas in the movie said greed is good, i mean, it s 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. 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. 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. you may not have heard of michael milken of drexel lambert
Beaten reagan for the honor had a vote been taken among traders. they gave him round after round of cheers. we re going to turn the bull loose. the whole world, from reagan s white house on, was basically saying wall street is the engine of our economy. it represents growth. it represents opportunity. it represents the american dream. so these guys were basically saying, we re going to go do it. this is the big draw on wall street, the smell of money. this is where the action is. this is the over-the-counter trading for shearson layman. more than 17,000 daily transactions involving millions of shares and millions of dollars, made and lost here every day. and it s a game for young people. when you get home at the end of the week and you look back at what you ve done sitting at this desk, what gives you a sense of satisfaction? i guess making a lot of money. for yourself or for the firm? myself and for the firm. when the economy started to recover and become more vibran
Partners, $89 million. it is no secret thatoff made about $500 million through losing on your attempted takeovers. do you go into it anticipating the loss is still going to stand you very well? you never like to lose, but if you lose and make money, well, it makes it a little easier. i remember someplace, the guy got up and said, i have a question. he said, you re making a lot of money out of this. and i said, the shareholders are too. he said, yes, but you re a fast buck artist. fast buck artist? i said, who in the hell would want to be known as a slow buck artist? i see it as a free enterprise system working at its best. pickens was really the first major investor to realize how undervalued american companies were and what you could buy there. and it was his early tilt at gulf city services, all these
Tough economic times, and went wow, we can now spent. i want you to think about this also. honey, that s what s going to set your eyes off. the economy started growing, and it was largely a consumer-driven growth. but the consumer economy was funded by debt. the national bankruptcy rate is soaring. greg and diana, annual income $32,000. they had over $12,000 in unsecured debts when they bought a new home. then they bought a new washer, a dryer, a microwave oven, and a betamarks tv recorder. then they went bankrupt. i know i don t have money, but if you ve got plastic money, there s nothing holding you back. it became acceptable to have debt. it was acceptable to have a credit card. more than acceptable, you wanted to pull it out of your wallet and use it. live from tampa bay, florida, it s the home shopping club. every doodad and tchotchke. americans seemed utterly