Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me, Mr.
Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in
fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a
second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare
proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top
industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies,
the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it
because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the
company!
All together, these men sitting up here [Teldar management]
own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his
million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.
You own the company. That's right -- you, the stockholder.
And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these
bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their
corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Teldar Paper has 33 different vice
presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent
the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure
it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars
last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going
back and forth between all these vice presidents.
The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be
survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get
eliminated.
In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there
were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion
dollars. Thank you.
I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack
of a better word -- is good.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of
the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for
love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar
Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Thank you very much.