The set of inter-related economic activities powered by the greed, i.e., the production and consumption of goods and services whose ultimate goal is high Index of Fortune. The Value Quest Bourse is reference to current economic crisis, effected by globalised economy and free trade ideology that brought unrestricted deregulation of the global financial system and trade, caused turbulence in labour markets and displacement of industry, and imposed privatisation which was often recklessly done.
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South Sea Scheme, engraving by William Hogarth, 1721
Image in the public domain source
Hogarth pictured catastrophic stock market crash of 1720 noted as the South Sea Bubble. Blindfolded Fortune is hanging from the balcony of London's Guildhall. The devil is cutting her flesh and throws it to the speculators. Difrent forms of gambling and feverish spining of merry-go-round simbolises wild speculation that took place during the South Sea Bubble.
An example in the ARTS -> “Greed is Good”
“You are all pretty much fucked. You don’t know it yet, but you are NINJA generation. No income. No job. No assets. You got a lot to look forward to. Someone reminded me that I once said ’Greed is good.’ Now it seems it’s legal. But folks it’s greed that makes my bartender buy three houses he can’t afford with no money down. And it’s greed that makes your parents refinance their $200,000 house for 250. And then take that extra 50 and they go to the mall. And they buy a plasma TV, cell phones, computers, and SUV. And hey, why not a second home while we’re at it? Because, gee whiz, we all know that prices of houses in America always go up, right? It’s greed that makes the government in this country cut the interest rates to one-percent, after 9/11. So we could all go shopping again. They got all these fancy names for trillions of dollars of credit: CMOs, CDOs, SIVs, ABSs. I honestly think there’s may be only 75 people in the world who know what they are. But I’ll tell you what they are. They are WMDs. Weapons of Mass Destruction. That’s what they are. When I was away, it seemed like greed got greedier with a little bit of envy mixed in. Hedge funders were walking home with 50, 100 million bucks a year. So Mr. Banker he’s looks around, and he says, ’My life looks pretty boring.’ So he starts leveraging his interest up to 40, 50 to one with your money. Not his, yours. Because he could. You’ve supposed to be borrowing, not them. And the beauty of the deal, no one is responsible. Because everybody’s drinking the same Kool-Aid. Last year, ladies and gentleman, forty percent of all American corporate profits came from financial services. Not production, not anything remotely to do with the needs of the American public. The truth is, we’re all part of it now. Banks, consumers, we’re moving money around in circles. We take a buck, we shoot it full of steroids, and we call it ’leverage.’ I’ll call it ’steroid banking.’ I’ve been considered a pretty smart guy when it comes to finance. And maybe i was in prison too long. But sometimes it is the only place to stay sane and look out through those bars and say, ’Hey! is there everybody out there nuts?’ It’s clear as a bell that to those that pay attention. The mother of all evil is speculation. Leveraged debt. Bottom line. It’s borrowing to the hilt. And I hate to tell you this, but it’s a bankrupt business model. It won’t work. It’s systemic, malignant, and it’s global. Like Cancer. It’s a disease, and we got to hight it back. How are we gonna do that? How are we gonna leverage that disease back in our favor?…”
REF -> Transcript: Gordon Gekko’s speech, a ruthless stock broker played by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010). Directed by Oliver Stone, written by Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff. Staring: Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas and Carey Mulligan.