Rogers weve had 29yearolds making 1 million a year, expecting to make 2 million the year after that. Diana ferry but if youve got plastic money, theres Nothing Holding you back. History will prove the bakkers were honest people. Reporter Insider Trading could become wall streets watergate. Pauley what do we call greed the day before an indictment . Im afraid recently, weve called it success. Robinson 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 our standard of living is declining. Thomas 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. Dobyns 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. Mclean wed come off a terrible decade for investing. Peopl
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
to him, it was just another deal. i think the judge made it clear that he would have given mr. levine a heavier sentence, except for the cooperation. baird: dennis levine was one guy doing insider trading, and that s not something that s new. but what dennis levine did was lead to ivan boesky. the securities and exchange commission stunned wall street today when it announced that investor ivan boesky has been fined the largest penalty ever for insider stock trading, and he has been barred now from the securities industry. monsees: boesky did what he publicly claimed he would never do use insider information to buy huge blocks of stock in companies secretly involved in takeover deals. ivan boesky was an out-and-out crook, handing bags of cash to people who would give him inside information. if we had capital punishment for white-collar crimes, i d say he d be a prime candidate. stourton: ivan boesky arrived in court to hear himself described as a man whose arrogance has been stripped
to stop his takeover bid. the profit to pickens and his partners $89 million. it is no secret that you ve made about a half a billion dollars through losing on your attempted takeovers. do you go into it anticipating that a loss is still gonna stand you very well? well, you never like to lose, but if you lose and make money, well, it makes it a little easier. i remember i was someplace and 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. burrough: 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 tilts at gulf, city services, all these famous deals that brought this new reality
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