Daily Dialogue — November 2, 2010

“You sandbagged me on Bluestar. I guess you think you taught the teacher a lesson, that you can make the tail wag the dog, huh? Well, let me cue you in: the ice is melting under your feet sport… You think you could’ve gotten this far this fast with anybody else? You think you could be out there dicking somebody like Darien? No, you’d be cold calling dentists and widows to buy twenty shares of some dog stock! I took you in! A nobody! I opened doors for you!…I showed you how the system works!… the value of information! How you get it! Anacott Steel, Brant Resources, Transuniversal, Fulham Oil. And this is how you pay back, you cockroach! I gave you Darien, I gave you your manhood. I gave you everything. You could’ve been one of the great ones Bud…I look at you and see myself…Why?”

 — Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas), Wall Street (1987), written by Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is villain’s last words suggested by Blue. 

Trivia: Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is good” speech was inspired by a similar speech given by Ivan Boesky at the University of California’s commencement ceremony in 1986. Boesky was a Wall Street arbitrageur who paid a $100 million penalty to the SEC to settle insider trading charges later that same year. In his speech, Boesky said “Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”