A “Margin Call” for Jeremy Irons

Despite our concerns about the project, there's no denying that Jeremy Irons is a fine addition to the cast of "Margin Call," which is being produced by and stars Zachary "Spock" Quinto.

"Margin Call" chronicles a single day at a large investment bank at the beginning of the current financial collapse, and has been described as “Gordon Gekko meets Jack Bauer.”

Irons has joined a cast, reported Deadline, that already includes Quinto, Kevin Spacy, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Penn Badgely, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci.

Having literally made somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 margin calls in a past life, we're worried about this one. For those who don't know, buying stocks on margin works a bit like a mortgage: you buy stock mostly with borrowed money. But if the value of your stocks goes down too much, and your equity in the stock gets too low, you get a margin call, informing you that you need to repay some of your loan or sell some of the stock.

Margin calls didn't really play much of a part in the current economic crisis (though they were instrumental in the Internet Bubble that burst in the spring of 2000), and we know too well how people who don't really understand trading on margin tend to make it out as some mysterious bogeyman.

And no one every came running through our office waving a gun trying to save the president's life.

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