Despite the market fall I would guess he still had millions stashed away. So it makes you wonder why he just didn't just shrug his shoulders and walk away.
I guess like those millionaires who waned to make an extra buck investing all their wealth in Madoff's ponzi scheme greed breeds greed. They can't of even of spent all their money in their lifetimes.
Why would he walk away? He still has his job, salary and having something to do every day. Even with market loss he would still be worth hundreds of millions.
shareHe's basically choosing to salvage his stock value, which is probably a significant percentage of his wealth. The rich aren't happy with simply being rich. They're happy with being richer. Which of course means they're practically never happy, because they could always be richer.
shareYes you're right - having just a few more million than their rich friends must give them a feeling of extra status. Look at those Billionaires/Millionaires who lost a fortune putting their money with Madoff just to earn a little more.
shareWalk away and do what? He's at the top of a top company. You don't rise to a position like that with wanting it truly, madly, deeply. That kind of fighter usually does not willingly leave the field of battle until forced out by ill health, family pressures, an uncooperative Board of Directors, or death.
shareHe would probably suffer from severe depression if he gave his job up. Many people do when they come to the end of their careers.
shareHe's obviously in a very silly way named after Dick Fuld. Dick Fuld didn't walk away. To the end and to this day, he was delusional about what happened to Lehman.
shareThis happens to a lot of people who cannot accept reality. Someone I used to work with lost his job after 20 years but still came back up to the office for a while and just to walk around it peering through the windows
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Interesting as his character from Wikipedia is loosely based on John Thain at then Merrill Lynch (bought by Bank of America after they collapsed in 2008) and Dick Fuld ex CEO of Lehman Brothers ( note the name combo) . Both lost everything stock wise as Lehman went into bankruptcy and Merrill was sold for pennies on the dollar.
Maybe the firm in the movie was based on Goldman who were relatively unscathed in the crisis