Other People's Money
Directors Notes
by Janet DeRuvo

The Ultimate Seduction- Is Other People’s Money a case of greed and avarice or one of liberation at the expense of a tragic hero?

In the throes of the ‘80’s junk bonds and corporate take overs, the ultimate seduction of power and money consume Wall Street. This high stakes, fast paced world of legally trading stock in companies targeted for extinction – “a paper transaction” with no concern for the workers (only the stock holders), is alien to the philosophies of those who built businesses on the backs of the small communities in which they live. Loyalty and morality take on new meanings as business ethics gray and the rules change. Sex and power are the byproducts of loving money and tweaking legalities.

Is Andrew Jorgenson a tragic hero? By definition, a hero is one who is in a high position, responsible for his/her own fate, doomed to make a fatal error, and by so doing, meets a tragic death – and we feel sorry for him. The saying, “pride cometh before the fall” is as true now as it ever was. Jorgy’s intense confidence and pride in the company is fodder for debate as to its true value. Those working for him end up as pawns in a game they haven’t been asked to join.

Garfinkle plays the game to the benefit of the stockholders. Does this make him a liquidator or a liberator? Joman Papillo suggests, in Rebirth of Reason, that Jorgy has failed in his responsibilities to the stockholders and that Garfinkle, in not compromising, does indeed have a conscience – and that his seemingly unethical actions are done with the most noble of intentions.

Jerry Sterner, businessman turned playwright, 1995, writes for the Stokeholder’s Alliance:

"Just talk about restructuring as positive and investors will buy it.  It’s really an admission of failure:  We’re closing this operation and firing these people so that we can stay in business.  But we ain’t paying the price.  The employees, the community, they pay the price.  Meanwhile, the executives’ salaries go up and their benefits increase because they are making the ‘hard decisions."

And the female element? Smart and sexy, fleeing the confines of the small town, playing the game in a man’s world – is Kate part of the prize, or the prize itself? Resistant, defensive, but worthy of playing the game, the argument can be made that matching Garfinkle with sex and power is a win/win situation.

You decide – and cast your votes.

PS – Other People’s Money has been studied at Cornell University in the Business Ethics program.

Janet DeRuvo, Director
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