He sounds like he was quite a strong believer in capitalism and in the profit motive,

Dera said, almost like a Gordon Gecko character who believed that greed was good.

I think he doesn't necessarily believe that it's greed that is good,

but rather entrepreneurialism or what he thinks of as being that.

He genuinely believes that what needs to happen to America's economy.

It needs somebody to come along and really breathe life into it.

Somebody in government compared him to Genghis Khan at one point, right?

Yes, and I think that gives you both a sense of where he's coming from politically,

but also a sense of his character.

Yeah. his character. Today on the story of money, we're going to be delving into a story that connects Gordon

Gecko with Garfield the cat.

I love it.

I mean, I was a teenager in the 1980s, and they are both icons of the 1980s.

Gordon Gecko famously said greed is good, epitomizing the attitude of Wall Street in those days.

And Garfield, well, what can I say?

He was a cartoon character famous for loving lasagna.

And believe it or not, that link is relevant. But there's something else that links them beyond

being born in the 80s. And that's the subject of today's episode. And that is the business

deal that launched the private equity industry. And I mean, let's be honest, it wasn't the first ever private equity deal out there,

but the key point is that this was a deal that put private equity on the map.

And back then, in fact, it wasn't actually called private equity.

The key word is the leverage buyout era of the 1980s. And that's where

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