Den amerikanske filminstruktør Oliver Stone skabte i 1987 filmen "Wall Street" om den skrupelløse spekulant Gordon Gekko, for hvem målet helliger alle midler.
Charlie Sheen spiller den unge børsmægler Bud Fox med store ambitioner, der ser en genvej til de riges bord, da det lykkes ham at blive Gordon Gekkos protege. Gordon Gekko er en skruppelløs spekulant fra Manhattans finansverden, der tjener penge på aktiehandler, kunst og ejendomme.
I en af filmens nøglescener træder Gordon Gekko - spillet af Michael Douglas - frem på generalforsamlingen i det nødlidende Teldar Paper, som han ønsker at overtage, og holder der en afgørende tale, hvor han revser den siddende bestyrelse og direktion med Mr. Cromwell i spidsen:
»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 three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than one 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 luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.
... 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.«
Citatet fangede bedre end nogen den økonomiske tidsånd i anden halvdel af 1980erne, hvor børsmæglere, investeringsbanker og finanshuse tjente formuer.
Filmen indbragte Michael Douglas en oscar for bedste hovedrolle, og dannede stilskole for børsmæglere og forretningsfolk med sin tøjstil og de karakteristiske seler.
En efterfølger til filmen Wall Street har været undervejs siden 2007 under titlen "Money Never Sleeps", hvor man angiveligt følger Gordon Gekkos meritter umiddelbart efter løsladelsen fra fængslet. Manuskriptet måtte dog skrives om i lyset af finanskrisen, der for alvor brød frem i efteråret 2008, og gilmen fik først forsinket premiere i 2010.