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A Second-Rate Power December 11, 1987

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Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) speaks of how America has disintegrated in terms of corporate policies, mocking the representatives of the Teldar Paper Company in the film, Wall Street.

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GEKKO: Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

All together, these men sitting up here own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.

You own the company. That's right - you, the stockholder.

And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

CROMWELL: This is an outrage! You're out of line, Gekko!

GEKKO: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.

Gordon Gekko: A Second-Rate Power

December 11, 1987 (over 25 years ago)

Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) speaks of how America has disintegrated in terms of corporate policies, mocking the representatives of the Teldar Paper Company in the film, Wall Street.

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A Second-Rate Power- December 11, 1987

- Gordon Gekko
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