WHENEVER “capitalism” appears shaken and bad, whenever there is failure on Wall Street, people become Oliver Stone. In his film Wall Street, Stone—whose chief talent is making films of social protest through simplifying things—shows just how astounding human greed is. Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, propounds his principle: greed is good. “Greed is right. Greed works. Greed...has marked the upward surge of mankind.”

But greed is th