Economic Review of the Wolf of Wall Street

Abstract

Trading of stocks is common in the market economy today most of it being done online. There are involved brokers in the same field too, just like any other trade in the market. Stock brokerage in stock trading is illegal, as the brokers take the advantage of people’s wealth with the aim of making doubles and more out of it. The movie ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ is a perfect depict of the situation in the stock brokerage performed by individuals in the market economy today and the impacts projected from the same. An economic analysis of the movie seeks to find out the economic relation of the movie and the real market situation in the world today. The review is set to be made possible through the help of the past review journal about the movie, written by Aron and Jacob and also an economic review book by Scorsese and Martin.

Economic Review of the Wolf of Wall Street

Introduction

Stock in the world is traded in the exchanges, where people including the sellers and the buyers meet and agree on specific prices on the stocks. Some of the exchanges happen in actual physical locations where the meetings on the stocks take place and buyers and sellers yell, throw hands up in signals either for their buyers or their sellers. Another type of exchange which is widely spread in the world today is the trading of stocks online through the use of computers and certain related software. “Wall Street,” a movie produced in 2013 is based on the stock trade by investors in the attempt to depict the real situation that happens in the actual market economy in the world today. This paper is a detailed economic review of the movie, through various arguments and support on the related subject. The paper intends to relate the situations depicted in the movie, with actual happenings in the market economy concerning the stock trade. The paper will source most of its information with the previous research conducted on the same issue as a source of information. The paper will also source information from journals with reviews about the movie from the public all over America and the rest of the world.

Argument #1

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ is based on the stock trading and involves making phone calls to the rich investors, to have them put their money in the terrible business and as a result, have the money increase instantly. Jordan and his colleagues are only interested in toping up their account and do not care about anything else. It is therefore seen that the movie is bereft of all other details. In a scene that when Jordan begins to describe or talk about any economic concept like the Initial Public Offer, he derails and stops himself suggesting that nobody cares about the economy, after all, the main point is that they can make money and lots of it from the process. According to previous research, the situation is compared to the scenes that happen in the sci-fi movies, whereby nobody cares about all the details, so long as a rocket goes up into the sky and explodes, it is considered bad. The movie shows how it disrespects the audience and the viewers on issues concerning the economy. The audience is depicted as so stupid that it can’t stand through a simple explanation of the IPO in the economy. This evidence puts across the disrespect that the movie has to the economy other than just an aim of making money from the stocks without caring about anything else in the economy.

Argument #2

The movie gives a clear revelation of what exactly and who in the current economy is valued. Despite all his faults and shortcomings, he got to serve thirty six months only in the federal prison which would be a different case if he was in a lower class than he was. This shows how the world is segregated and divided into classes into the aspects of justice and economic status of the involved individuals. Also, Jordan made his salesmen out of young and stupid men who only had the ability to convince, no matter the consequences of their actions. They had to make the phone calls to the working class people with money and convince them to buy the stocks of the companies that existed in the market but were worthless. This has an economic risk lesson to not only the small investors but also the big ones who are depicted in the movie, as they are required to invest properly to limit the risks of losing it all on greed.

Argument #3

The financial markets in the world today the odds and chances have a huge dependence of what and how the people think. Jordan explains that the less the people think, the better and he uses this to his advantage claiming that people who decide to go into the world of finance should be clever but up to some level since, if they are too clever they are yet to be manipulated out of their financial worthiness. Through the movie, he tries to bring out the concept that the extent of the financial system is not the exact thing that should make people alarmed but rather the concentration and connectivity involved. This is shown in the movie through the calls made to the investors and being convinced that the increasing share of banks in Wall Street is concentrated in some banks thereby spreading the risk of their investment. Economically the standard theory applies, which suggests that limited profits are the direct results of limited ownership like in the case of the banks in the United Kingdom. Also, it is shown that in the actual economic setup, there are real vague allusions of the Wall Street role in the true economy. The main message, therefore, passed along successfully, is that in the modern economy, there is no doubt that greed can reap people out of their focus and drive them into nasty and desperate moves

Counter Argument and Refutation

Although most of the reviews to the movie are based on criticism on the same, I think that the movie provided insights about the real situation that is happening not only in London but also in other parts of the world, by most of the top class in the stock trade. Most of the people use the stock trade to purportedly increase their wealth while at the same time taking advantage of the lower class with little knowledge in the field. The movie is a clear revelation of what happens in the market economy and the ways that these people present themselves as high class making them enjoy the high-class favors from the society and the law as well. The paper tries to show that the Wall Street movie passed the test as it tries not to make the stock market look like evil, but at the same time capture the viewers’ attention and interests about the same topic. The movie aimed to express its point in some ways, but due to the associated vulgar and incidences involved, there is less portrayed which gives a feeling that much could have been done in the movie in the attempt of describing the real situation in the market economy.

Conclusion

Wolf of Wall Street is a piece of work focused on the stocks trade implicating the actual situation that takes place in the United Kingdom, specifically in Wall Street. The movie depicts how people have loved their money and their ways of making it, in this case through the stock brokerage to the extent of not caring about the economy and all the associated factors in it. Through the movie, it can be seen that people are called to invest their money in the stock trades which in the real sense increases the risk on their money thereby putting the whole economy at risk also. The movie has made the attempt of depicting the actual market economy, but one can easily figure the lies in it as the situation and the people move from ordinary to outrageous within a very short period.