Money Never Sleeps… Does Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence?
We all knew this day would come. Gordon Gecko, the fictional wolf of Wall Street portrayed by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film Wall Street is returning in a new soon to be released movie sequel called Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Here is the trailer:
Mr. Gecko is most famous for the line, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.“ Here the clip where Mr. Gecko says the famous line at a stockholder’s meeting:
This new movie revisits Mr. Gecko 23 years later, after he is released for stock manipulation and other securities crimes.
In this film, Mr. Gecko tries to warn the world of the 2008 financial crisis (before it happens). Along the way he crosses paths with a hedge fund’s prop trader, Jacob, (played by Shia LeBouf). In a plot twist Jacob suspects, who else but the hedge fund manager for the death of his mentor….
In the pre-Madoff environment, and particularly in the 1980′s when the first Wall St. film takes place, business and operational shenanigans, may have foolishly been subject to lesser degrees of due diligence – which is perhaps why they either went undetected or grew out of control (i.e. – Ivan Boesky)
All this made me think in the post-Madoff environment if the Gordon Gecko’s of the world would still stand up to modern due diligence techniques? ….
Perhaps maybe this theatrical shareholder’s speech sums it up best:
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