“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” and Neither Does ICBA

Usually the time I spend on a plane is a way to lose myself in a book, reflect, catch up on work or perhaps enjoy a movie. On a recent trip, the in-flight movie was Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Watching this movie was like reliving the past few years of my life dealing with the financial crisis. I lived through several of those meetings referred to or shown in the movie. I knew those players from Wall Street and the government officials (formerly from Wall Street) portrayed in the movie—and I remember what I was doing during the meetings and who said what.

I am proud to say that ICBA made a strong and positive difference for community banks during the darkest days of the crisis. And I agree with the movie's "Godfather," the now-wrinkled prophet of Wall Street, Gordon Gekko, when he says in a speech to business students that the greed of Wall Street leading up to the crisis was the “greatest transfer of money from Main Street to Wall Street [in the nation's history], and it’s going to happen again.”

Another observation Gekko makes is that “right now it’s ugly times ugly, and that's when the ugly get going.”

We can all learn from the observations of Mr. Gekko. See the movie and learn what really happened and how and who really triggered the worst financial crisis in generations.