Say it ain't so Gekko !

[Quahogs]

Srebro - a villain no more ?? Is this the death of the NFBC Gekko too ?

Gekko recants; now greed is no good
10:19 am ET 02/28/2012 - MarketWatch Databased News

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The Feds are enlisting one of Wall Street's most admired bankers in the quest to root out insider trading: Gordon Gekko.

Scoff if you like, but the character portrayed by Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" and "Wall Street II: Money Never Sleeps" may be the most influential person, real or fictional, to today's generation of financial barbarians.

Douglas will be reprising his role somewhat in public service announcements for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to The Wall Street Journal. Douglas will turn his "greed is good" mantra on its head. Read full story on Feds' campaign to root out insider trading.

"The movie was fiction, but the problem is real...To report insider trading, contact your local FBI office," Douglas says in the spot.

That Douglas was willing to flip from fictional felon to state's witness isn't as unlikely as it seems. Oliver Stone, in an interview with the WSJ, in 2010 said that the sequel sought to set the record straight. In that movie, Gekko has a change of heart about greed.

Douglas, who won an Oscar for his performance in the first movie, unwittingly created a character idolized by the industry. They copied his slicked hair, his suspenders and, mostly, his credo about greed.

Perhaps not coincidentally, we saw Wall Street press for deregulation in the 1990s followed by a period of excess that shook the foundations of the global economy.

That's why a hammy appearance by Douglas as Gekko isn't the gimmick that it may seem. Gekko, more than anyone of the era -- Ivan Boesky, Henry Kravis or Michael Milken -- set the tone for 20 years of banking.

Douglas may not reverse the damage, but the public wouldn't mind a Hollywood ending.

[rockitsauce]

our Gekko would never do something like that !

perhaps a new monikor is needed now that Douglas has turned the original Gekko into a (gasp) good guy !

I can think of a certain real estate mogul who eats pizza w/ a fork