Last month I had the opportunity to view the movie, “The Wolf of Wall Street” (WWS). What I was hoping to see was a continuation of the old Gordon Gekko character. What I got was a rendition of Wall Street thievery so obscene that even Gekko would have drawn a line in the sand based on his own historical standards. Throw in penny-stock manipulation of companies whose home offices were located in someone’s garage (detached), and we have theft in its finest hour. Where Gekko had strived to become a billionaire, the WWS characters set goals to support their drug habits. Fortunately, our heroes didn’t know when to “Just Say No”, and their untimely ingestions became their undoing.
When money flows so freely that it can buy the latest quick fix with the greatest of ease, one usually finds debauchery and degradation right around the corner. WWS certainly was not an exception to the rule. Don’t get me wrong. The acting may have been superb. The story may have been true. I don’t care. When an industry is charged with the stewardship of the planet’s funds, one should expect just a wee bit higher level of behavior…… during business hours anyway. Still, I am happy the film was produced so everyone could see to what new lows the industry can stoop periodically. That kind of quick money produced in the film can and does buy loyalty at the expense of morals, ethics, families, and (dare I say it?) the customer.
So how does the storyline of “The Wolf of Wall Street” stack up against, for example, Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “Too Big To Fail” or Michael Lewis’ “Boomerang”? I guess it all boils down to what their ill-gotten riches were intended to buy. One could assume very little of the fee income from those public and private IPOs were spent trying to alleviate hunger in Africa, polio in Pakistan, earthquake damage in Haiti, typhoons in the Phillipines, or the problems facing the families of U.S. troops no longer with us. Our troops protect our rights whether those rights involve being free to protest against our own government and whether those rights give us the freedom to be relieved of some of our hard-earned after-tax dollars at the hands of unscrupulous dealers.
Last week, you were able to read some national headlines about Michael Lewis’ new book about companies trying to stay ahead of who “might” buy or sell something in a nano-second. Firms are adapting to, what was the old concept, computer programmed trading. Now we’re talking fractions of a second, billions of dollars more or less, for those institutions who can/cannot get their trades into the system before someone’s original transaction completes its transmission to the marketplace. I really think I can settle for a five second window to verify my stock purchase. What say you?