Gordon Gekko on corporate America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF_iorX_MAw
Ladies and gentlemen, […] America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!
You are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost $110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.
The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated.
In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. […] And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Thank you very much.
His daughter on ESG investing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LieXd9DI8fE
Ladies and gentlemen, investment management has become a second-rate industry. Its ESG greenwashing is at nightmare proportions. When investment management was a top industry, there was accountability to the client. The Buffets, the Soros, the men that built this great financial empire, delivered top investment returns to their clients. Today, investors just pretend to save the planet!You are –please pardon my French—being royally screwed over by these ESG bureaucrats, with their endless questionnaires, their colorful charts, their blah-blah letters to CEOs, and net-zero corporate jets.
The number of ESG “experts” has ballooned. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what impact most of these guys have, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that ESG funds charge 40% more than regular ones on average and I’ll bet that half of that goes in greenwashers’ pockets.
The new law of evolution in investment management seems to be survival of the greenwasher. Well, in my book you either deliver top investment returns and top impact, or you get eliminated.
Investors could boost investment returns by improving key ESG elements for each firm they invest in. Yet, most don’t. Investors need to get greedy again! Greed for money. Greed for impact. For greed is not a destroyer of sustainability, it is a liberator of it!
The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save the world, but that other malfunctioning concept called ESG investing.
Thank you very much.