Black Friday is not another bad hair day in Wall Street. It's the term used by American retailers to describe the day after the Thanksgiving Holiday, seen as the semi-official start of Christmas shopping season.
The ethos on Wall Street has not changed, and that's not going to come from the corner office. That's going to come, for better or worse, from Washington, and the whole idea of greed is still good, that is still pervasive.
But the good news is that out in the countryside, just about every place that's got a zip code has somebody or some group of people battling the economic and political exclusion that Wall Street and Washington are shoving down our throats.
If you go back to the time of J.P. Morgan, the world of high finance was completely wholesale. The prestigious investment banks on Wall Street appealed exclusively to large corporations, governments, and to extremely wealthy individuals.
By creating an urgent crisis that can only be solved by those fluent in a language too complex for ordinary people to understand, the Wall Street crowd has turned the vast majority of Americans into non-participants in their own political future.
Wall Street banks have the right to express their views to lawmakers and regulators through lobbying, but the law is clear: If they want to influence lawmakers, they must disclose their lobbying expenditures.
Years ago, as I was beginning my professional career on Wall Street, I volunteered as a Big Brother in New York City.
If the goal is to build companies that maximize long-term equity value, then optimizing corporate performance in a way that Wall Street appreciates is obviously critical to that goal.
Second of all, I don't think Wall Street is doing what it's supposed to be doing, even after the shameful performance of the last two years. They're are not allocating capital.
The art of investing is not about figuring out what has already happened. It’s about anticipating the futureand creating the future that others will read about in The Wall Street Journal.
Now, Spitzer was an anti-crime crusader cracking down on prostitution and Wall Street corruption. So some people were looking to take him down.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was fortunate: He didn't take office until nearly four years after the Wall Street crash, by which time the Republicans' responsibility for the Depression was taken for granted.
Bud Fox: Sun-tzu: If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight, and if not split and reevaluate.
Carl Fox: Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.
Gordon Gekko: You're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.
Gordon Gekko: Ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? 'Cause they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered.
[after Bud lost $100,000 on a 'dog' stock] Gordon Gekko: I guess your Dad isn't on the Board of Directors of *that* company, is he?
Gordon Gekko: This is the kid, calls me 59 days in a row, wants to be a player. There ought to be a picture of you in the dictionary under persistence kid.
Bud Fox: [after Gordon calls back and buys Bluestar] [Loudly] Bud Fox: Yeah! Woooo! I just bagged the elephant!
Investment Banker: Your boy really did his homework, Fox. And you'll have the shortest executive career since that Pope that got poisoned.
[last lines] Carl Fox: [Bud is being dropped off in front of the courthouse] We'll park the car and catch up with you. Bud Fox: Alright.
