Hollywood’s Take on the Credit Crisis?

November 24, 2008

[Int. -- A tough guy sits behind a desk]

“Am I a white knight or a black king?” a grizzled voice asks. “If you have to ask you’re on the wrong side…Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys.”

[Ext. --  Three people, running, dive for safety against the backdrop of an exploding building.]

“We provide leverage,” the same grizzled voice explains.

If you’re a basketball fan, you have probably caught the trailer for TNT’s new drama “Leverage.” I tried to depict the scene above, but if you have yet to see it, Youtube kindly provides a link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_6jirHkvb4. 

The show, as it turns out, is not a take on the M&A financing market. But with a liberal suspension of disbelief it very well could be. In fact, as I watch this commercial over and over again, I’m becoming convinced that the creators stole the framework of the story from the credit crisis, doctoring it just a bit to fit more of a MacGruber-styled theme. 

Yeah, I’m a bit paranoid, but everything, it seems, has been touched by the credit crisis these days. As it relates to M&A, that means there are fewer buyers, fewer sellers, and an overall dearth of dealmaking. In our personal lives, the credit crisis hits much closer to home. Try to list the “safe” jobs that still exist today and you’ll be left with a handful that might include repo agents, nurses and auto repair.

If a company has taken on a lot of debt, well that’s when that Hollywood image of the exploding building in the trailer might seem appropriate, and it’s exactly the point when the word “leverage” begins to take on a more perverse meaning than the show’s creators ever could have intended.

This isn’t to say that the world is going to end, but whenever this crisis passes, I think it will be a long time after that before the word “leverage” doesn’t evoke an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach.