Oliver Stone: Wall Street Was Right on the Money

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good," proclaimed cutthroat corporate raider Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street. It's about time that the movie's director, Oliver Stone, weighed in on Wall Street's unfolding crisis. Here's what he told the WSJ's Washington Wire blog:

"The Gekkos of the world are still there," he added, castigating industry icons who have partied lavishly while mortgage corporations and establishment banks were tanking. "It was greed that drove this. Look at the greed, the size of it, the derivative schemes, the hedge funds..." He said he feels sorry for workers who lost their jobs. He said, "But it was inevitable it would end like this."

"The content of the movie was right on the money," he said, pun intended. Stone was approached to do a version of "Wall Street II," but he turned that down last year to make a film about President Bush called "W" that will premier next month. Meanwhile, he conceded that being ahead of your time doesn't necessarily save you grief. He said, "I have stocks. I don't even know what the...they are now. We're all tied in to this mess."

Relive Gekko's speech below: