As Gordon Gekko returned to the silver screen after 23 years, his doppelgangers in the real world went back to their old ways
WHY WE DID THE STORY: It all started with our deputy editor, Shishir Prasad, being intrigued by the return of Gordon Gekko, the icon of greed, in a sequel to Oliver Stone’s 1987 thriller Wall Street. It seemed that traders and investment banks had learned their lessons in 2008 during the worst ever financial meltdown since the Great Depression. Why, Prasad wondered, would Oliver Stone make another movie on the theme of greed on Wall Street?
He commissioned an interview with Stone by our contributor, Maharshi Vaishnav, to find out the answers. At the same time, I happened to be reading up on how easy liquidity and low interest rates were triggering a fresh round of excessive risk-taking on Wall Street. During a newsroom chat at Forbes India, it was clear that we were sitting on a potential cover story.
Wall Street insiders told us stories of how a new breed of investment bankers was emerging, replacing the old, but all the dirty tricks of the trade were intact. In fact, they told us, new bubbles were building up in the bond market, mergers and acquisitions and share offers.
(This story appears in the 03 June, 2011 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)