You are here:

Synopsis

This episode of current affairs show Close Up offers a fascinating portrait of 80s job du jour: foreign exchange dealer. The intrepid reporter heads into "the pit" (trading room) and chronicles the working life of a senior 'forex' dealer, 25-year-old squash-playing accountancy graduate, John Key. The "smiling assassin" (and future Prime Minister) is a now-familiar calm and earnest presence amongst the young cowboys playing for fortunes and Porsches in the heady pre-sharemarket crash world: "they're like addicts who eat, breathe and sleep foreign exchange dealing".

Credits (6)

 John Keir
 Clive Litt
 John Key

Post a comment

   
I am:
 

Please keep your comments relevant to this title. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

Comments (33)

 Waldegrave

Waldegrave

Every second their jobs are on the line. Poor them! Peoples lives are on the line thanks to them!!!

 Gordon Wilson

Gordon Wilson

His competency is secondary to his purpose. His skill and insight have not alerted him to the fact that our debt based monetary system is killing us; that we have scarcity and poverty for the many; that an "export driven economy" is the biggest lie this country had ever swallowed from a financial perspective. The catch phrase should have been something synonymous with a "self-sufficient economy". Our country (like almost every other) cannot survive without exorbitant debt and huge exports and imports. These two things keep us poor and entrapped. Our country is managed by international bankers who like party politicians to do their bidding. So what is John Key's purpose?...

 Jonny

Jonny

Wasn't the stock market crash in 1987, this is simply gambling.
Good to know he is now running the Country and continuing to sell, sell, sell.

 Nick

Nick

I love the old technology. It's a totally different world now.

 Te Aniwa Tutara

Te Aniwa Tutara

I don't agree with quite a few things his government is doing but in a GFC. I voted for John Key because he was the best choice for our treasury and nz financial security. this confirms my thinking. I wonder where Phil goff would have taken us??

Show 5 more comments

Produced by

Source

Favourite:

You need to be logged in to add to your favourites.

Related Titles (14)

 Gloss

Television, 1987

More 80s money and excess

 Gliding On

Television, 1981

A less-pressured 80s office environment

 Revolution (part three) - The Great Divide

Television, 1996 (Full Length Episode)

Political and economic history series featuring the sharemarket crash

 Revolution

Television, 1996

Series on the political and economic context of the time

 Someone Else's Country

Film, 1996 (Full Length)

A polar opposite perspective on the market

 Dead Certs

Television, 1995 (Excerpts)

Gambling with less remuneration

 Open Door - Problem Gambling

Television, 2009 (Full Length)

Gambling gone bad

 Every Second Counts - 8 October 1987

Television, 1987 (Full Length Episode)

Another 'Before They Were Famous' flashback

 The Hollow Men

Television, 2008 (Full Length)

Documentary about 2005 Election includes John Key

 The Listener Gofta Awards 1987

Television, 1987 (Excerpts)

Another time-warp to the pre-crash 80s

 Hometown Boomtown

Television, 1983 (Full Length)

More Wellington 80s excess

 Zilch!

Film, 1989 (Full Length)

Big dealing in 80s Auckland

 Flatmates - Episode One

Television, 1997 (Full Length Episode)

Another young banker at home

 My God - Gareth Morgan

Television, 2009 (Full Length Episode)

More high finance

Collections.   See all collections ›  

Included in:

 Politics
 Greatest Hits
 Before They Were Famous

Quotes

It’s the sort of job where you can come to work in a BMW but if you make a million dollar mistake during the day then, as far as the boss is concerned, you can go home on the bus. 
When the boys arrive in the morning, it’s a bit me like me throwing raw meat into the pit [trading room] ... and saying ‘eat that then go out there and kill them’. 
John has an uncanny ability to know when to hold positions and when to cut positions ... he seems to have a sixth sense about where the market is about to move to.