Recently greed has become a popular term of endearment. There's even a TV game show by that name. In the 1990s, as capitalism, technology, and the financial markets advanced, some free-market economists defended Gekko's speech, arguing that the pursuit of greed is beneficial and an integral feature of market capitalism. It motivates individuals to work harder, to create new and better products. On the other hand, critics of capitalism, from Thorstein Veblen to John Kenneth Galbraith, have long argued that capitalism unleashes greed, creating greater inequality, alienation, and deception in society.
Capitalism is, in short, morally corrupting, both for the individual and business.
Part of the problem is in the definition of the word. If greed simply means enthusiastically pursuing one's self-interest, there is no harm in it and a great deal of good. Unfortunately, greed carries excessive baggage beyond honest initiative. This conjures up passages of conspicuous consumption from Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class, or scenes of the miserly banker foreclosing on the poor in Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life. Greed is no virtue in the financial markets.