Greed is Good, Episode 5, The Eighties, CNN. Tonite, 8PM ET; Finance & Corruption Refresher/Jolt.
Tonight on CCN or Watch FULL EPISODE here. Reaganomics, Financial Deregulation, Insider Trading, Mega Profits, Junk Bonds, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Takeovers, Savings & Loan Crisis, Televangelist Fraud, credit cards, consumerism & shopping malls across America when Wall Street corruption set the tone for a decade of greed & excess.
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Pickens became a household word nationwide in 1986, when his heavily leveraged bets on oil went south with the commodities collapse that year. It was, I believe, the second-largest personal bankruptcy in U.S. history up to that point (second only to the Hunt brothers' spectacular fall after trying to corner the silver market in 1980).
His fellow Texans called the poor guy "Slim" Pickens for years afterward. 
His fortunes slowly recovered until, in 2003, his hunch (perhaps on a White House tip) paid off: that Dubya was indeed going to invade Iraq with or without a UN fig leaf, and that it was going to be a long, drawn-out boondoggle. Like in 1986, he leveraged call options on oil to the hilt - and before he knew it, he was a billionaire again.
Now, of course, he entertains himself by doling out his financial (and, of course, political) opinions. "No thanks, Boone," I'd tell him, "just give me the inside number at PNAC."
