I saw one of Stone's Vietnam movies, probably the first. I thought it was OK. I've wanted to see his "Heaven and Earth" just for the soundtrack. Other than that, I've not had much interest in his movies.
Gordon Gecko has nothing on the "greed is good" of people like Franklin Raines, a government employee who was paid as much as $40 million a year. And what a great job he did: his Fannie-Mae government department triggered the financial mess.
If you're talking about "Platoon", (also a Charlie Sheen movie, as a matter of fact), I saw that too and it was tremendous. The music they play over the closing credits, Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", is one of the most powerful pieces of music I have ever heard.
Once again, could you show me the stock certificate you obviously have from the Department of Education? If you can buy stock in it, it's a private company. That's what stock means. I will grant you Fannie Mae had a role in the financial crisis, they were irresponsibily led, and had too cozy a relationship with Congress. And $40 million is too much for the head of Fannie Mae to make.
But Fannie Mae is not a department of the federal government, no matter how many times you say it is. Last year, the head of Fannie Mae made $10 million, not $40 million. And $40 million dollars is a rounding error for people like Michael Milken and T. Boone Pickens, who were the models for Gekko-they made billions, not millions.
(I hasten to add that, as screwed up as FM was and continues to be, some good was done-some people got loans for houses out of it. As Gekko freely admits in the movie, arbitrageurs don't make anything-they create money off of other people's work.)
I saw one of Stone's Vietnam movies, probably the first. I thought it was OK. I've wanted to see his "Heaven and Earth" just for the soundtrack. Other than that, I've not had much interest in his movies.
ReplyDeleteGordon Gecko has nothing on the "greed is good" of people like Franklin Raines, a government employee who was paid as much as $40 million a year. And what a great job he did: his Fannie-Mae government department triggered the financial mess.
If you're talking about "Platoon", (also a Charlie Sheen movie, as a matter of fact), I saw that too and it was tremendous. The music they play over the closing credits, Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", is one of the most powerful pieces of music I have ever heard.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, could you show me the stock certificate you obviously have from the Department of Education? If you can buy stock in it, it's a private company. That's what stock means. I will grant you Fannie Mae had a role in the financial crisis, they were irresponsibily led, and had too cozy a relationship with Congress. And $40 million is too much for the head of Fannie Mae to make.
But Fannie Mae is not a department of the federal government, no matter how many times you say it is. Last year, the head of Fannie Mae made $10 million, not $40 million. And $40 million dollars is a rounding error for people like Michael Milken and T. Boone Pickens, who were the models for Gekko-they made billions, not millions.
(I hasten to add that, as screwed up as FM was and continues to be, some good was done-some people got loans for houses out of it. As Gekko freely admits in the movie, arbitrageurs don't make anything-they create money off of other people's work.)