In a 1991 interview with Playboy magazine, then-Chrysler Corp. CEO Lee Iacocca was asked about Donald Trump, already a wildly famous real estate deal-maker and best-selling author. Here is the exchange.
Playboy:
What's going on with the business establishment of this country? The Donald Trumps, for instance.
Iacocca: I know Trump fairly well. Now that's an ego that's gone screw-loose, gone haywire. What the business establishment of this country has to do is get away from this new financial-transaction mentality. It used to be that Wall Street, the financial markets and the banks were there to promote and fund the companies that produced goods and created jobs. Now they've taken on a life of their own: "What's the play? Where can we make a fast buck?" What we really need to do in this country is get back to the factory floors.
