Not this Gecko.. though this Gordon Gecko does have a bit of charm
"We continue our coverage now by turning to an issue that’s been raised repeatedly during the campaign: the personal wealth of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. A new article by reporter Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone sheds light on the origin of his fortune, revealing how Romney’s former firm, Bain Capital, used private equity to raise money to conduct corporate raids. Matt Taibbi writes, quote, "what most voters don’t know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America’s top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time," Taibbi writes. He goes on to say, "In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on [planet] Earth." Democracy Now".
More in this interview Matt Taibi says; "Well, that is what a private equity fund does. They’re essentially—it’s a synonym for what in the '80s we called the leverage buyout business. It's a small group that raises capital and then goes and leverages takeovers of companies using borrowed money. In the '80s, these—this sort of business was glamorized through a couple of things, in particular, in pop culture. One was the movie Wall Street, where Gordon Gekko, the famous Michael Douglas character from the Oliver Stone movie, was essentially a private equity guy. He was a leverage buyout takeover artist. And the other one was a book called Barbarians at the Gate, which was a true story of the takeover of RJR Nabisco by a company called KKR, which was another Bain Capital-like takeover company. And that's what they are. They’re essentially guys who borrow money to take over companies and extract wealth from those companies to pay off their investors." Democracy Now
I think the Country there thinking of taking over is the United States. I can hardly imagine have a guy like Gordon Gekko running our Country, though there could be some advantages, but given Romney's friendly and open attitude towards Wall street and Banking and investment de-regulation ,we may have alot to worry about.
The only thing missing is Charlie Sheen's character...Sheen played the young ambitious protege of Gordon Gekko in the movie "Wall Street" .Sheen's character later regrets he apprenticeship with Gekko,and betrays him. .Standing in for Sheen role we have, Vice president candidate Paul Ryan; young ambitious upstart for that office.
A Brief synopsis of the ending of the movie Wall Street,imagine Paul Ryan in the place of Charlie sheen's character, "Bud Fox".
"Fox believes that the Bluestar Airlines can be improved and made a commercial success. He persuades Gekko to buy Bluestar and expand it using savings achieved by union concessions. The union leaders, including Fox's father Carl, are invited to Fox's apartment in order to discuss the proposal. Only Carl Fox proves to be hostile to the idea since he does not trust Gekko and feels that Gekko only wants to buy up and then liquidate the airline, but, after a row with his son, he agrees to put it to his men.
Things seem to be going well, but then Fox learns at a shareholders meeting that Gekko has indeed double-crossed him and in fact intends to sell off all of Bluestar's assets leaving Carl and the entire Bluestar staff unemployed once the stock peaks at it's price. Fox himself stands to make a fortune on such a move but is racked with guilt since it was never his intention to break up Bluestar, especially since many of the staff happen to be friends whom he has known for a long time. Just then, Fox learns that his father has been admitted to the hospital from a heart attack. At his father's bedside, Fox apologizes to his father for doubting him.
From this point onwards, Fox resolves to destroy Gekko's plans to take over Bluestar. Darien tries to talk him out of it, pointing out the money that they are going to earn and the danger of making an enemy out of Gekko. Fox refuses to listen to her arguments and they break up, leading her to walk out on him for good.
A few days later, Fox and the union leaders privately meet Gekko's rival, Sir Laurence Wildman, who agrees to take over ownership of Bluestar, and, in return for union concessions, save it from being asset-stripped. The next day, Fox then gets his colleagues at Jackson Steinem to persuade their clients to invest in Bluestar. Using Gekko's own methods, he leaks the news of Gekko's takeover of Bluestar which sends the share price up. The union leaders then confront Gekko, warning him that they know of his plans to liquidate the company (which of course he calmly denies) and threatening to make life so difficult for the customers that by the time the company is broken up it will be next to worthless.
Gekko decides to cut his loses and pull out of Bluestar - "What the hell. So we only make 10 million instead of 20 million." - but Fox then gets his contacts to dump their Bluestar stocks... which sends the share price down! Gekko is unable to find buyers for his own stock, "I am losing millions!", and is forced to sell at a loss. Once the share price has gone down as far as it can, Wildman buys it up, taking over Bluestar. Gekko is furious and knows who to blame.
The next day, a triumphant Fox arrives at work at Jackson Steinem & Co. where he is confronted by the police and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Apparently Gekko tiped them off about Fox's insider dealings which they themselves have been investigating for some time. Fox is arrested, handcuffed and led out of the office in tears." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094291/synopsis
I think Romney got it right in picking a Paul Ryan, a young man as a V.P Choice, Do you think Ryan might be in for a "rude awakening"..has his V.P choice in an Romney administration?
This might not be the first time Art imitates reality in American Presidential elections! In California we had these images unusual from a television commercial for the de-frocked Bank "Washington Mutual". These commercials featured a Black man as some kind of caretaker of a bunch of wily, inebriated bankers.
Art imitating reality...lets hope not.
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