Do you know who Gordon Gekko is?  Aside from having an awesome name, he’s the antagonist in a fantastic movie from 1987 called “Wall Street.”  The story follows a young broker that gets caught up in some insider trading scandals in his quest to further his career.  The story dramatically shows the cutthroat world of Wall Street, but more importantly it paints the picture of what a corrupt Wall Street/business executive can do.  It establishes the archetype of what a white collar criminal is.

The reference to “white collar” worker dates back to the 1930s, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that some enterprising fashion designers decided to specifically design shirts that had white collars.  This of course allowed white-collar workers to brand themselves as such for the whole world to see.  Why would anyone want to announce to the public that they are a white-collar worker?

White collar shirts, often called “contrast collar” shirts, are simply a fashion anomaly.  As I said before, they were popularized in the 80s by fools that thought it would benefit themselves someway to have a pretty shirt but still show their sweat stains on the collar.  These people are also probably fond of this useless invention, the cuff link.  Amazingly, the contrast collar shirt has made a comeback.  I guess the market crash at the end of the 80s that killed the style the first time wasn’t enough.  I guess we’ll need to taint Wall Street again to kill this phenomenon once and for all.

I bring up my annoyance with the white-collar shirt due to the tainted image Wall Street has picked up over the last couple of years.  The recession exposed some bad apples like Bernie Madoff for the villains they were.  But all of Wall Street has suffered as a result.  Though some of it was deserved, most was not.  We’ve made Wall Street a scapegoat for a recession we all caused.

The only reason we’re all so pissed at Wall Street is because we had so much tied up into their success.  Not only were our retirements tied up into the market, but our livelihoods relied the success of banking, which failed in the backlash.  No other industry supports us in a more substantial way than finance.  And finance let us down.

Which is why Wall Street needs a PR makeover!  I imagine some kind of TV show where enterprising young PR firms compete for the right to handle all the branding for Wall Street.  When someone has to be cut, the judges can say “sorry, we can’t invest with you” or something stupid.  Irregardless, Wall Street looks bad these days and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.  What can be done to get Wall Street back on Main Street’s good side?

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: banking, business, investing, media