Prospectus
The Power of the Street:
Wall Street’s Effect on American Culture
Wall Street, the financial capital of the world, has long stood as an iconic figure in the economic, political, and social development of American culture. From the American Revolution up until today, Wall Street has evolved from a space to a symbolic place. The .7 miles of physical space that make up the area of Wall Street in downtown New York City holds little significance compared to the representational meaning behind the Street of all streets.[1] From the people, to the behavior, to the purpose, Wall Street has continuously embodied much of the wealth, or desire for wealth, that exists in America. While Wall Street is known to hold much of its power in this obvious wealth, the real power of the Street is metaphorical.
Although there is much to be said about the concentration of wealth that lies in the hands of those working, participating, or making the financial markets, the metaphor that Wall Street has become within American culture is truly more affluent. “The Street” has evolved from a place of business to the actual business. Working on Wall Street has become a synonym for working in the financial sector. The very mention of Wall Street instantly strikes varied feelings of trust and suspicion within the minds of the nation. This confusing perception that the nation has long struggled with stems from various media outlets that have excessively represented the culture of Wall Street from both internal and external views. However, whether revered or despised, there is no denying the Street’s symbolic meaning in American history and the development of the nation’s culture.
This essay will be split into a three-part analysis. Determining the definitive culture of America and furthermore the culture of the iconic symbol of Wall Street is difficult due to the dynamic quality of both, therefore, this essay will look at the cultural perception of Wall Street and its metaphorical power within American culture from external, internal, and scholarly perspectives. Through different platforms such as literature, film, and newspaper, Wall Street has been emulated and recognized as a distinctive place, but recently more than ever before in American history, people have had more animosity towards the institution along with its concentrated wealth and power. This animosity has only further established the Street’s metaphorical powers and solidified it as an iconic power in American culture.
First, I will examine the way in which the culture of Wall Street has been critically represented externally through filmic interpretations, news headlines, and literary works. Popular films such as Oliver Stone’s Wall Street andMartin Scorcese’s The Wolf of Wall Street have clearly shown the Hollywood interpretation of the greed, mischievous behavior, and excessive affluence that are associated with the Street. These critical and entertaining films that depict the Wall Street culture of the last 20th century have certainly cultivated a certain judgment in the minds of society leading to the headlines surrounding the movement of Occupy Wall Street that have continued this external suspicion and hostility towards the business. Along with films and news sources, the nonfiction literary works of author Michael Lewis will contribute to the analysis in this essay both as an external and internal source as he experienced the business firsthand as well as retiring from it and writing as an external critic to continue the awareness of its interesting culture within America.
Second, I will look at the work of Michael Lewis again and explore how the culture of Wall Street is perceived from an internal view of an employee to the business. Lewis’s time on the Salomon Brothers trading floor and his literary nonfiction gives a thorough understanding of the hectic and obscene behavior of 1980s Wall Street that many still associate the business with today. I will take this past behavior of Wall Street and find sources that speak to the present change in its environment. For this second piece, the internal view, I will look to find how many major Wall Street firms publically present their financial services business and aim to stray away from the stigma that is attached to the Street and its cultural affect in America.
Lastly, I will tie in the scholarly work of Steve Fraser who emulates the nation’s love hate relationship with Wall Street and the speculative reasons for this. I will use his analysis of Wall Street culture to dive into the recently more left leaning aversion to the place as it relates to scandalous headlines, economic insecurity, and the push against the inequality of income in the nation. Fraser’s analysis of the culture of Wall Street will help to give a scholarly rationalization for how and why “Wall Street is not a street; it is ‘the Street.’”[2]
Through these examples and scholarly texts, I ultimately aim to illustrate the metaphorical power of Wall Street and the undoubtedly important role of this icon in the history and development of American culture. While much of the population in America may not be directly affected, related to or concerned with the culture of Wall Street, it has certainly had indirect affects on the entire nation, not to mention the culture of America that we continuously attempt to define and understand. Whether Wall Street has been a positive or negative icon, it certainly has been a powerful and enduring one.
[1] Fraser, Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace. Page 1.
[2] Fraser, Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace. Page 1.
Primary Sources:
Lewis, Michael. Liar’s Poker: Rising through the Wreckage on Wall Street. New York: Norton, 1989.
Lewis, Michael. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt.
Shiller, Robert J.. Finance and the good society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012.
The Wolf of Wall Street. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio. Paramount Pictures, 2013. DVD.
Wall Street. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2000. DVD.
Secondary Sources:
Boozer, Jack Jr. “Wall Street: The Commodification of Perception.” The Films of Oliver Stone. Ed. Donald Kunz. London: Scarecrow, 1997.
Browder, Clifford. The Money Game in Old New York: Daniel Drew and His Times. Lexington, K.Y.: University of Kentucky, 1986.
Fraser, Steve. Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
Fraser, Steve. Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2005.
Hoffman, Nicholas. Capitalist Fools: Tales of American Business, from Carnegie to Forbes to the Milken Gang. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
Perkins, Edwin J.. Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-class Investors. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Shiller, Robert J.. Finance and the Good Society. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012.