The movie Wall Street (1987) and the play Junk by Ayad Akhtar tell similar Wall Street stories each depicting people willing to break the law in order to make money. In both works money and greed are what fuel and end up getting both Bud Fox and Bob Merkin indicted. Throughout both works many innocent people are hurt because of the carelessness of a select few who will stop at nothing to earn a couple bucks. The main theme in both Junk and Wall Street is greed. The main character in Wall Street Bud Fox and the main character in Junk Bob Merkin are in complete opposite positions. Bud Fox is just staring his career on Wall Street while Bob Merkin is no rookie but pushes his luck by having Boris Pronski write him a check for 6.5 million dollars. …show more content…
In Junk Tom Everson the third generation CEO of Everson steel takes his own life because Bob Merkins stealing his company. People are hurt in both story's because of greed. In Wall Street Gordon Gekko as well as Bud Fox get indicted. In both stories the head guy goes down. Although one example of greed getting in the way of family can be seen in Wall Street when Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko try and buy Bluestar airlines which is the company Bud's father has worked at for over twenty five years. Gekko meets with the board and promises that he will do his best to turn the company around and Bud's his right hand man on this one. After Bud sees what Gekko's true intentions are not only is he upset but so is his father who was assured that they company would be bought to be turned around. Easily the biggest example of people being hurt in both pieces of work is when they both get arrested. When Bud Fox meets Mr. Gekko at the end he mentions some time was so its implied that he received some jail time. The sentences of Bud Fox and Bob Merkin are the best example of innocent people getting hurt. I'm not talking about the two of them. I'm talking about their family's. They have to watch their sons go to prison and live with out them for a couple
Morgan was one of the more selfish of the barons. He once said, “I owe nothing to the public, and often practiced fraud and distortion. His methods of monopolizing the banking industry were so obvious, that they were in fact called, “Morganization.” He once sold 5,000 defective rifles to General Fremont, and was never even filed suit against. Morgan still has an impact today since many companies produce faulty products or perform inadequate services that can sometimes even result in injury or even death, and are often written off as “human error” or bundles of cash pushed towards the victims to keep them
Robber Barons in America What is a robber baron? Webster’s New Dictionary defines him as an American capitalist of the late 19th century who became wealthy through exploitation (as of natural resources, governmental influence, or low wage scales) or a person who satisfies himself by depriving another. In America, we have a lot of these kinds of people. For this report, I am going to tell you about the ones that I found most interesting to me.
“Money and sex motivate people, Andy. And money is the one thing that gets their hands off their dicks and into work” (Prebble, Act 1 Scene 5). And so with dicks and dollar bills flying all over the place, “Enron” by Lucy Prebble opens the curtain for us, the audience and participants of consumers, to look into the backstage of the notorious Enron collapse in 2001, revealing the discourse and bizarreness of the corporate culture. From the coexisting affair and competition between Skilling and Roe, to the hissing raptors eating up debt from the dark basement of Andy Fastow’s office, the darkest characters of Man are brought under examination and questioned with the unethical rise and the inevitable fall of Enron. With its plot rooted from a
Jordan Belfort is famous for his crooked way of earning his millions as a stockbroker on Wall Street. Even Belfort started at the bottom, on his first day in Wall Street he was told he was “lower than pond scum”(Belfort 1). After writing a book about his happenings on Wall Street, we’ve seen the
Theodore Roosevelt claims that “probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.” The former President of the United States emphasizes that greed is an obstacle to the good working of modern societies. The novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez portray that the greatest harm is made up of vast wealth. In the Great Gatsby, the protagonist, Jay Gatsby has made his wealth and gained his made-up sense of celebrity through bootlegging. In Bodega Dreams, the main character, Willie Bodega also sells illegal drugs. The Great Gatsby and Bodega Dreams are similar because both Gatsby and Bodega earn their money by selling illegal items, they are madly in love with somebody and want them to tell that they never love their husband, and both protagonists are murdered in cold blood.
The decades after the Civil War rapidly changed the face of the United States. The rapid industrialization of the nation changed us from generally agrarian to the top industrial power in the world. Business tycoons thrived during this time, forging great business empires with the use of trusts and pools. Farmers moved to the cities and into the factories, living off wages and changing the face of the workforce. This rapid industrialization created wide gaps in society, and the government, which had originally taken a hands off approach to business, was forced to step in.
Martin Shkreli, the CEO of the company that raised the price of the H.I.V medicine, was arrested because of wrongdoings involving his former hedge fund and a pharmaceutical company he previously headed. He has been charged with conspiracy to commit security fraud, wire fraud, and using his previous company to cover personal debts. U.S. Attorney Robert Capers says, “As alleged in the indictment, Shkreli essentially ran his companies like a Ponzi scheme, where he used each subsequent company to pay off the defrauded investors in the prior company” (Shkreli). Shkreli was willing to break the law in order to obtain more money than he already has. Shkreli doesn’t care that he is committing crimes because the American dream has taken control him and he can’t stop until he reaches it. Because of his desire for a more prosperous life, Shkreli made some bad choices and now might end up losing everything that he has worked for. Likewise, in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby himself conducts shady businesses. Gatsby is willing to corrupt himself to in order to obtain the American dream; Gatsby says, “Oh, no,....this isn’t the man.....This is just a friend. I told you we’d talk about that some other time” (Fitzgerald 75). This display Gatsby’s need for more money, with shady people such as Wolfshiem, even though he is already a very wealthy man. He wants to keep making money ultimately to impress Daisy so he can win her over; this is the reason
In the case of the first poem, it was more of the perspective of a high class woman. The narrator who saw the women cleaning in the airport did not like the scene due to the fact that she believes that there are better jobs and options out there. As a woman coming from a higher class, she may think one way. However, we do not know whether or not the lady actually cleaning feels the same way. In line 16, Oliver mentions, “Yes, a person wants to stand in a happy place”, in a poem. But first we must watch her as she stares down at her labor, which is dull enough.” This quote goes to show that the narrator dislikes the fact that she is doing such a low job. The narrator considers that peoples too showy and live only on the external, and the woman
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sexuality he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in restitution to any swindled stock buyers of his brokerage firm (A&E Networks Television). Though his lavish spending and berserk party lifestyle was consumed by excessive greed, he displayed both positive and negative aspects of business communications.
Mackay, Tim. "The Ethics Of The Wolf Of Wall Street." Charter 85.2 (2014): 67.Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the life and also the author, Jordan Belfort. Jordan becomes discontent with his everyday life and realizes his talent for selling. As he continuously gains more money, he begins using more drugs. Way more drugs. Jordan starts his own brokerage firm named Stratton-Oakmont. Jordan hires a staff of, well, criminals to help him sell cheap stocks. They would sell all of these cheap stocks to their customers, then Belfort would buy large amounts of these stocks, running up the price, and then dump it. Finally, Jordan begins running into a lot of legal trouble as the FBI is on to the ways his brokerage firm works. Although Belfort has the FBI watching him very closely, he continues to spend huge sums of money on things such as boats, cars, houses, strippers/hookers, and last, but certainly not least, drugs. As Jordan’s already massive drug problem continues to escalate, he has to keep a very large portion of his money in a European account to hide it from the Feds. Belfort ends up going to prison for 22 months for fraud of his
... The greed portrayed by these characters has no explanation, at least that Fitzgerald offers, and thus should not exist; proving that these characters are simply greedy and deserve all that comes to them. And thus these two authors differ in the reasons why the greed occurs and, effectively, the difference in the short, 1-day gap from October 24 into October 25, 1929. And so greed exists in the modern period, saturating its two of its most famous novels and a theme of two of its most famous authors, portraying all evil as caused by greed, illustrating the true cynicism of the era. Works Cited Stenbeck, J. a.
The Wolf of Wall Street produced and directed by Martin Scorsese tells a story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker living a luxurious life on Wall Street. Due to greed and corruption, Jordan falls into a life of crime and abusive activities. Belfort made millions of dollars by selling customers “penny stocks” and manipulating the market through his company, Stratton Oakmont, before being convicted of any criminal activity (Solomon, 2013). Jordan reveals behaviours and impulses all humans have, however, on an extreme level. This movie illustrates “why ethics is another tool whose importance cannot be overstated” (Delaney, 2014). Without ethics and morality, individuals can never truly live an honest and happy life.
Wall Street is a movie that exposes corruption and disguises all values, beliefs, and other ethical philosophy. Throughout the movie, Wall Street shows how ethics adapts to a person’s personality by power and wealth alongside honesty and truth. Bud Fox, a young stockbroker is looking for a way to make a name for himself. He is determined to get as many clients as he can to become successful. He later meets a ruthless man named Mr. Gekko where learns how to reach to the top by illegal actions such as insider trading. Bud Fox was an honest living man who had good ethics but was later showed what true power is became money hungry. The power of greed is fascinating the code that everyone lives by is inevitable once money comes into play. There are five types of interpersonal power; reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, and expert power. These types of power will be used to correspond relationships throughout the movie. In Wall Street we realize how Gordon Gekko uses Bud Fox for his benefit. In this paper I will show the types of powers that are used by Gordon Gekko and how they are used. One clear type of power that Gordon Gekko uses in his relationship with Bud Fox is the Referent power base. This power stands out because it is clear that Bud wants to become a top notch in the industry. Bud is striving to be successful when he exposes what he’s able to do at the meeting with Gordon Gekko he instantly become closer to his goals. There were scenes where Gordon had legitimate power. His knowledge and information was what made him rich. Bud Fox had to listen to what Gordon was telling him in order to become successful. This was an example of Gekko having legitimate power over Bud Fox. Expert power which is an ...
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sex, he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in restitution to any swindled stock buyers of his brokerage firm. Though his lavish spending and berserk party lifestyle was consumed by excessive greed, he displayed both positive and negative aspects of business communications.