Occupy Walstreet and Government Essays - Films, Margin Call, Broker

What would you do? Most people think that in similar situations they would behave differently. The truth is most people would do whatever they had to, to maintain their best interest. In the movie ?Margin Call? the investment bank brokers are faced with a difficult decision. They find out that the company that the work for is about to go under and managers and CEO make the decision to sell the company to other brokers as soon as possible so that they can save themselves. Kevin Spacey?s character is the manager of the Risk management department and seems more interested in the failing health of his dog than the fate of his employees that have been randomly selected to be terminated. Jeremy Irons plays the self absorbed CEO who?s only concern is his own financial stability. Simon Baker?s character is second in command and Demi Moore?s, Stanley Tucci?s character is fired after many years of service. Although he receives a severance package he is understandably upset when he learns that he has lost his job. Before leaving the building he gives Penn Badgley?s character a young broker some sensitive information and tells him that he has been working on it for a while but was unable to finish it and ask him to finish it but warns him to be careful. Because of the information the young broker finds the company his disassembled within twenty four hours. There are several dilemmas in this movie. Some of the dilemmas are obvious, but others are less noticeable. The first is should he tell and if so who should he tell. After spilling the beans he is quickly whisked into a meeting, where he witnesses the decision making process to sell a company because of his discovery. The choices made in the film could be seen as ruthless or necessary. Either way people were going to lose their jobs but the question could be if compromising their integrity and still losing their jobs was the best option. Decisions are often hard to make but in this instance the decisions had more losers than winners. Business minded people may thing the choice to sell before the company was worthless was the right decision, others may feel that people are more. Employees are people; many have families that rely on their income, and their benefits. Though this was a movie it was based on actual events, it had such real elements that it seems plausible that this scenario could have very well have played out in a conference room during the early stages of the housing crisis.