“Right now it is ugly times ugly”
“The Government is worse that your wife. They get all the power, half the money, and now they’re working on getting the other half.”
~Gordon Gekko
There is truth in the movies, but you have to know where to look for it. I hope that I’ve been able to get to you before you make a big mistake and spend a any money, or a single moment of your time watching the new Wall Street movie. If you haven’t seen it…don’t. There is absolutely nothing entertaining about Money Never Sleeps and it clocks in a tad over 2 hours. I can think of many ways that you would be better off spending your time….dentist, raking leaves, parent/teacher meetings…
For me, Douglas was the most anticipated aspect of the show, as most of us traders were hoping to relive that nostalgic character of his from so long ago. Sadly his role really was reduced to an afterthought, even a bunch of trading cliches could make a difference. Sheen’s 10 second cameo was completely out of place and awkward and never should have been in the movie.
What I can’t figure out is what was the real point of this movie. The plot was unoriginal, mostly because it was a recap of the nightmare that was the markets in 08′, but more importantly it was forced, undeveloped, and the acting was just plain bad. Once was enough for any trader to live through an economic collapse like we experienced, but to pay money and go through it again? Did Stone think we’d actually enjoy this?
There was one interesting character though…an odd, elderly fellow named Jules Steinhardt.. He was on the board, very creepy, and had a strange whistle. During the emergency meeting of the Fed when all the top heads were trying to figure out the correct response to the crises (to bailout or not bailout). They had already let one bank named Keller Zabel (obvious a Lehman reference) and now two more…too big to fail banks were in danger of collapsing. The technique that they felt they could use to convince Congress was to “Scare them”.
Congress was conveniently made out to sound like the “bad guy” because they would want to actually know where the bailout money is going. As if they should just mortgage the future of America without any consideration to where the money was actually going. That seemed like the logical course of action to the board.
Jules had the following to say of what would happen if they couldn’t get Congress to pass the bailout bill:
“1929…It’ll get worse now because it can move faster. Money markets will dry up around the world by the end of the week. ATM’s will stop spitting bills. FDIC will collapse. Banks will close. Mobs, Panic…it’s going to be the end of the world.” *creepy whistle.
Does life imitate art, or does art imitate life?
After that scene I started thinking about what I was really watching. To those informed traders/investors on such matters, it was obvious that this was nothing more than a Hollywood rehash of what really went down during the 08′ collapse. To me it feels like a slap in the face off all the individuals that saw their 401 retirement accounts lose 30-50% of their value. What WS2 does is fictionalize and trivialize exactly what happened, while justifying the bailouts because if they didn’t it was “going to be the end of the world”. WS2 is nothing more than damage control and the public’s perception of the 08′ bailouts and being ok with mortgaging our future because it was in the best interest of the people now. This is classic Hollywood manipulation wrapped up in a nostalgic sequel that was a letdown on many levels.
