A Summary of: "Creating Wealth or Milkin’ the Public?" By Bob Klein

A Summary of: “Creating Wealth or Milkin’ the Public?" By Bob Klein

On  April 16th, 1989, Bob Klein’s article “Creating Wealth or Milkin’ the Public?” was published in the Sunday Edition of the Orange County Register. Bob Klein discusses how the late 1980s prosecutions of investment bankers and traders tarnished the reputation of Wall Street and LaSalle Street.

While authorities were prosecuting these businessmen for fraud, commentators began blaming this widespread corruption on materialism and greed.

Bob Klein explains how the word “greed” often has a negative connotation associated with its meaning. For example, Oliver Stone’s movie Wall Street has approaches greed in a negative way. In the film, you meet Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, who is a symbol of uncontrollable greed.

As a dishonest corporate raider, Gekko cheats on his partners all while praising greed. Throughout the film Gekko remains to be the only advocate of greed, making both him and the concept of greed the villain.

Unlike the negative undertones of Gekko in Wall Street, greed did not always hold such an adverse meaning. Originally, the word “greed” meant hunger. Over time that the definition grew more hostile towards objects of greed such as material goods and wealth. Bob Klein states that the usage of the word greed implies desire causes corruption. This implication can lead people to believe that it is wrong to desire and the strive to for more.

In reality greed, in its original meaning, is what has brought mankind from a primitive world into a modern century.  Bob Klein believes that the desire to make money it is not the what causes corruption. In fact, the opposite is true. “To make money is to create value”.

Bob Klein states that it outrageous to conclude that fraud is widespread on Wall Street and LaSalle streets. To have success on Wall Street and LaSalle Street, you must have honesty. With so much on the table, such as million-dollar transactions, neither Wall Street or LaSalle Street have no time for charlatans and cheats.

While it is easy to attempt to smear investors and traders as greedy, Bob Klein states that we should appreciate their role in creating wealth, which makes us all better off.   Both Wall Street and LaSalle Street are cornerstones to economic progress.

To read Bob Klein’s full article, please click here.