Context

This line is spoken by Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, in the film Wall Street, directed by Oliver Stone (1987).

Gordon Gekko tries to explain what is wrong with America in 1987 (and whenever you're reading this, probably), and how it's a bad thing when the people who own only one percent of a company are in charge of the whole thing. 

Sound familiar?

Of course, the executive in charge isn't happy about it, screaming "You're out of line, Gekko!" And...no one listens to the rest of the speech. People only latch onto the line—often misquoted as "Greed is good"—as a justification for the kind of the behavior that led to the Wall St. collapse, instead of as an indictment of it.

Where you've heard it

You hear it almost any time some talks about the American economy, whether it's Time magazine, Bloomberg View, CBS, or The Economist… and whether they actually agree with the phrase or not.

Additional Notable References

• An investment book
• A really ugly t-shirt
• Fortune magazine

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

 

We're gonna fall right in the middle on this one.