At my uni years, when I was doing my majors in corporate finance and portfolio management, I imagined myself being one of the best stock investment brokers at Wall Street in the future…
Yes, time changes many things after all. And although I still have slight interest in stock valuation and find investing very exciting, I am very happy I am not at the Wall Street now.
I watched ”Margin Call” today. It showed the insights of the Wall Street and I was impressed by the following:
- The cruel way people are fired – remember how Mr. Dale was fired after 19 years of service? One cold interview, humiliating walk along the cubicals with boxes of personal belongings and the security guy following his each move to make sure that he takes nothing more than his personal belongings. In short – even committed employees are treated like shit!
- At some point you think that the top executive is crying because 80% of the floor was sent home forever, but suddenly he tells ”My dog is dying…”… On the other hand it is kind of logical, after all it is his dog, while the fired people are company’s people, no?
- Remember when one of the big executives is called to see the projection graphs and figures he tells ”I can’t read this thing” 🙂 Maybe it is not fair, but that is the reality of most offices. Bosses are almost always professionally much weaker than the people working for them
- Looking at the scene contrast between the night life and the tense athmosphere in the office at night I somehow made parrallel between the freedom and slavery
- When it comes to Demi Moore, she could not help herself even in the extreme situation such as ad hoc meeting in the middle of the night act as a perfect snob and asking about guy’s background
- Be first, be smarter or cheat! I guess no comments needed there
- ”When did you get so soft”? That is how Wall Street calls ethical employees – soft!
- What is right might take multiple interpretations 🙂
- There is a scene, when one sees that even in 150k car one can feel pretty uncomfortable. Isn’t it ironic?
As a conslusion I would say that the movie was really nice. It managed to show relatively dull subject in quite entertaining way. Most probably for those, who are familiar with different financial terms and the Wall Street market it is more understandable than for others, but the main topic i.e. business ethics is understood by all. And the cast is great too.
But… of course I can not deny that Wall Street is not only a source of big money, but also of adrenaline, speed, risk and the excitement of walking on the edge!