When Debt Became King
Money Talking
English - November 03, 2017 16:00 - 7 minutes - 6.93 MB - ★★★★ - 87 ratingsBusiness News News Society & Culture new york business money talking wnyc public radio npr charlie Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
The new play, “Junk,” tells a fictionalized story inspired by events from the 1980s, when deal-making, hostile takeovers, and high-yield debt financing (along with excess) were common. Now playing in New York City, the show is centered on the financier reminiscent of Michael Milken.
Joey Slotnick (center) playing Boris Pronsky in Ayad Akhtar's "Junk," showing at the Lincoln Center Theater.
(T. Charles Erickson /Lincoln Center Theater)
"Finance has become the dominant way of our being, of our national life," said playwright Ayad Akhtar. "What the play is attempting to do is to go back to that last moment in our history when the battle for who owns America could still be waged."
This week on Money Talking, Charlie Herman talks with Akhtar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, about his show "Junk" and the links between finance in the 1980s and today.
The Lincoln Center Theater, 150 West 65th Street, New York
Playing through Jan. 7, 2018
In his play, "Junk," Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Ahktar shows how influential the decisions made on Wall Street in the 1980s have been on modern finance.