Greed is good according to 80s mantra

My favourite movie of the 1980s is Wall Street, directed by Oliver Stone - this movie pretty much sums up the 80s - the decade of excess. The contrasting moral values of Martin Sheen's character versus Michael Douglas' character - the age of materialism.

I first saw Fitzgerald's The Great Gatbsy as a primary school student watching the late movie on a Friday night, the black and white version portrayed the roaring twenties as not only the age of jazz but also decadence and misplaced idealism leading to the great 1929 stockmarket crash and ensuring depression.

Jay Gatsby, a bootlegger isn't much different to Douglas' Gordon Gekko, both characters ethics are questioned leading to the demise of capitalism in their era. Douglas' Gekko is loosely based on Michael Milken, the junk bond financier, leveraged buyout practitioner, inside trader and racketeer.

While undertaking business education, most students now require units in business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Since Milken, corporate fraud led by Enron, WorldCom, HIH Insurance, One.Tel, Bond Corporation, Lehman Bros and Bear Stearns have lead to tightening of regulations. 

  The film was released in 1987, just months after the Black Monday stockmarket crash, (Black Tuesday in Australia due to timezone differences) of October 19 where markets declined 22% in the US, 41% in Australia and a whopping 60% in New Zealand.

"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."

I had been interested in financial markets and took a night class to learn the basics of share investment in 1988 gaining an introductory knowledge to the workings of equity markets. I also invested my own funds as both a trader and now as an investor. 

An individual is able to engage financial markets in an ethical and professional manner without undertaking fraudulent and unethical behaviour without having to rely on the government pension system. I only hope the ethics of the era are relegated to the history books and a new era of sustainability is upon us.