Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Page #4

And they buy a plasma TV, cell phones,

computers, an SUV. And hey,

why not a second home while we're at it?

Because, gee whiz,

we all know that prices of houses

in America always go up, right?

It's greed that makes

the government in this country

cut the interest rates

to one-percent, after 9/11.

So we could all go shopping again.

They got all these fancy names

for trillions of dollars of credit.

CMOs, CDOs, SIVs, ABSs.

I honestly think there's may be

only 75 people in the world

who know what they are.

(AUDIENCE CLAPPING)

But I'll tell you what they are.

They're WMDs. Weapons of

Mass Destruction. That's what they are.

When I was away,

it seemed like greed got greedier

with a little bit of envy mixed in.

Hedge funders were walking home

with 50, 100 million bucks a year.

So Mr. Banker, he's looks around,

and he says, "My life looks pretty boring."

So he starts leveraging his interests

up to 40, 50 to one

with your money.

Not his, yours.

Because he could.

You're supposed to be borrowing,

not them.

And the beauty of the deal,

no one is responsible.

Because everybody's drinking

the same Kool-Aid.

Last year, ladies and gentlemen,

forty percent

of all American corporate profits

came from financial services.

Not production,

not anything remotely to do

with the needs of the American public.

The truth is, we're all part of it now.

Banks, consumers,

we're moving money around in circles.

We take a buck,

we shoot it full of steroids,

and we call it "leverage."

I call it "steroid banking."

I've been considered a pretty smart guy

when it comes to finance.

That was fantastic, man.

And maybe I was in prison too long.

But sometimes

it's the only place to stay sane

and look out through those bars and say,

"Hey! Is everybody out there nuts?"

(STUDENTS APPLAUDING)

It's clear as a bell

to those that pay attention.

The mother of all evil is speculation.

Leveraged debt.

Bottom line.

It's borrowing to the hilt.

And I hate to tell you this,

but it's a bankrupt business model.

It won't work.

It's systemic, malignant, and it's global.

Like cancer.

It's a disease, and we got to fight back.

How are we gonna do that?

How are we gonna leverage

that disease back in our favor?

Well, I'll tell you.

Three words.

Buy my book.

(STUDENTS LAUGHING)

(STUDENTS CHEERING)

Prices and profits work.

GORDON:
This is the kind of energy

we need out there.

You just keep it up.

Mr. Gekko!

(PEOPLE CLAMORING)

- Excuse me for a moment, sir.

- GORDON:
Q and A's over, all right?

Buy the book. There's no more free advice.

My name is Jacob Moore.

I'm gonna marry your daughter.

Does she know that?

She pretended to.

All right, I'll give you 10 minutes.

I'm a prop trader at Keller Zabel.

I specialize in energy with a focus on...

Sorry about Lou.

One of the toughest guys

that ever wore shoes.

But when those rumors start...

JAKE:
Yeah. I wish I knew who started this.

I loved him very much.

Like a father.

He got me a scholarship here at Fordham

and hired me right out of business school.

Well, no one else in this market's

had the balls to commit suicide.

It's an honorable thing to do.

Mr. Gekko, I'm in love with your daughter.

- And I'd be honored...

- (LAUGHS)

Why is that funny?

My daughter hasn't spoken to me in years,

and you know it.

She blames me for her brother's overdose

and just about every other disaster

that's hit this world

since Nintendo.

You don't think it's strange that she's

dating somebody from Wall Street?

- Why?

- Because she hates it.

You don't think it's funny

that she'd fall in love with you?

I bet you don't have one of these.

JAKE:
No. Can I see that?

Yeah.

It's when she was eight.

Can I have a copy of it? She doesn't keep

pictures from her childhood.

I don't even know you, you already

want something from me, huh?

So what do I get in return?

Don't you want to make a trade?

Yeah, okay. All right.

I'll give you this and you give me

another picture of Winnie.

Recent, without you in it.

JAKE:
I don't have one on me.

I guess this is on margin, huh?

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

JAKE:
It's always been energy.

I've been specializing more and more

in clean tech.

It's sort of a passion now.

That's smart. That's the next bubble.

What are you,

some kind of energy freedom-fighter?

No, Mr. Gekko. I'm in this game

to make money like anybody else.

So what about money, Jake?

You like her?

Do I like...

I've never thought about money as a "she."

Oh!

She lies there in bed at night with you,

looking at you, one eye open.

Money's a b*tch that never sleeps.

And she's jealous.

And if you don't pay close attention,

you wake up in the morning,

and she might be gone forever.

Respectfully,

Mr. Gekko, I don't want to end up

where you are because of money.

Oh, yeah. So marry it instead, right?

What do you mean?

Winnie doesn't have any money.

Right.

Here I thought you were a gold-digger.

Does Winnie know you came to see me?

No.

Well, not exactly. I was gonna tell her.

I don't think that's a good idea, pal.

See, I got a feeling

you may want to be seeing me again

and if she knew

we had this little pow-wow,

she's not gonna let it happen.

You know what? You're a smart kid.

You should just walk away.

You never met me.

I don't understand.

I think...

The man that you loved like a father

who threw himself under a subway?

I think you're angrier

than you think you are.

And I think you wanna be

in the family business.

Which is what?

Payback.

Except I'm not in that business anymore.

Because the one thing I learned in jail

is that money is not the prime asset in life.

Time is.

And your time is just about up.

Winnie needs to get past the pain

you caused her.

I caused her?

Look, she wants you back in her life.

She just can't handle it right now.

Okay? Maybe I can help.

Maybe you can, maybe you can.

That's what makes the market, Jake.

This is my station.

That is my email address.

By the way, the rumors on Zabel?

Yeah?

It had to be someone

with enough clout to be believed,

somebody who made a fortune

shorting the stock.

An axe to grind.

Word has it that Bretton James

gutted Zabel at the Fed.

Just stuck that knife

right into his stomach.

Check out 2000.

The Internet bubble.

Churchill Schwartz, they got hosed.

You know there's fortunes to be made.

Hundreds of millions of dollars

betting against this bubble.

Just wish I had a million.

AUDREY:
It checks out, baby.

Thirteen banks were approached

in 2000 to rescue Churchill Schwartz.

Bretton James' division was over-invested

in the Internet bubble collapse.

Each bank was going to put up

100 million, but Zabel said no.

Churchill Schwartz almost went down

but was backstopped

by a conglomerate of nine banks.

Okay, so not only did they survive this,

but they came back

and ate our fricking lunch.

Moral hazard.

- Unbelievable.

- The man's a hypocrite.

(PHONE RINGING)

Jacob Moore.

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