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 [Teldar management] 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.

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.

The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated.

In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you.

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good.

Greed is right.

Greed works.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.

And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.

Most people don’t actually remember what Gordon Gekko actually said but in today’s business landscape where Obama is actually promoting survival of the unfittest via (unnatural) government selection these arguments are still actually quite responsible. (Of course Obama is like Gekko in sometimes saying one thing and doing another — but the infamous, ‘Greed is good,’ speech has gotten a bad rap over the years.)
David

Not a chance in H#!! of any of the Democrats being prosecuted.
The Republicans on the other hand are toast.
MarkTheGreat on June 29, 2009 at 1:46 PM

Reminds me of this exchange in “Braveheart”:

William Wallace [Mel Gibson]: “So, what does your god tell you about our situation?” [Referring to impossible odds prior to a battle with the English army.]
Stephen (The Crazy Irishman): “The Almighty tells me he can get me out of this mess… but he’s pretty sure you’re f–ked !”

ReagansRight on June 29, 2009 at 3:40 PM

You’re a daisy if you do ReagansRight

but of course, every other member of congress should be in jail as well.

We didn’t elect them to position themselves to profit while the rest of us lost big chunks of our retirement funds.

Translation: They took our money for their own ends. But this is normal Democratic behavior — what’s ours is theirs, and what’s theirs is theirs too.

Not a chance in H#!! of any of the Democrats being prosecuted.
The Republicans on the other hand are toast.
MarkTheGreat on June 29, 2009 at 1:46 PM

Reminds me of this exchange in “Braveheart”:

William Wallace [Mel Gibson]: “So, what does your god tell you about our situation?” [Referring to impossible odds prior to a battle with the English army.]
Stephen (The Crazy Irishman): “The Almighty tells me he can get me out of this mess… but he’s pretty sure you’re f–ked !”

LSUMama on June 29, 2009 at 2:48 PM

Sorry I meant John MaClane!

NONE of them are honest, NONE of them are clean, NONE of them listen anymore. Sure some of them ocasionally do the right thing but to often they do it just for cover in the next election.

Honestly if the pope was in congress right now I would STILL vote him out because as long as any of them remain the coruption and dishonesty will continue.

Unfortunately there are far to many people who actually believe that “their” rep is good and it’s “those other ones” who are bad and so this situation continues perpetually.

As long as ANY of them who are currently in office remain we will never see this parade of idiocy end. Personally I would love to see EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM arrested and taken to jail for what they have done either by ommission or deed.

FIRE ALL OF THESE CRIMINALS!!

I will NEVER vote for an incubant again, no matter how “good” a job he has claimed to have done. Every bill, every law, every regulation, is so loaded with deals to their friends and payoff’s to supporters that its sikening!

ALL OF THEM ARE THIEVES AND LIARS!!

Key West Reader on June 29, 2009 at 2:51 PM

Its 5 oclock somewhere…

Nancy Pelosi didn’t “drain the swamp”. She skinny dipped in it!

SouthernGent on June 29, 2009 at 2:52 PM

Oh. That’s nasty.

I need a beer.

Stupid question I know but is there such thing as an honest politician?

FontanaConservative on June 29, 2009 at 2:19 PM

I’m beginning to think that there are none, only those who haven’t yet been caught or exposed.

Shelly Moore Capito? Damn. I honestly thought she was going to be different than her father.

myrenovations on June 29, 2009 at 1:42 PM

Arch Moore was a crooked son of a gun. There was at least one book written on it, but a quick Google search turned this up:

Former Mingo County political boss Johnie Owens said Moore once lay down in the back seat of a car, to avoid being seen by passers-by, and “held up $12,000 and begged me to take it” to induce the county Democratic machine to support the Republican governor in an election.

Controversial coal operator Paul Kizer testified that he and Moore hid in a parked car at night behind Charleston’s abandoned incinerator to agree on perjury they could tell to federal investigators.

SNIP

In our furtive meeting, he said the tax evidence against Moore had been powerful, involving $200,000 in unreported income. He said the lawyer-politician had been executor of the estate of a crotchety hermit, and had found a signed, blank “certificate of assignment” in the hermit’s safety box – so he wrote in stock numbers and gave himself 900 Exxon shares from the old man’s assets. Also, he said, Moore converted $80,000 in campaign funds to personal use, and didn’t report $6,000 from a land deal in which a mental defective was cheated out of a fair share.

Me, too. I think that is their goal. Isn’t that how an abuser gets control over its victim. Keep hitting and striking from all sides until you just lay down and take it.

ihasurnominashun on June 29, 2009 at 1:46 PM

There are only 2 ways to stop/reverse this. The legal way is nigh improbable….the illegal way is unconscionable.