The era in which he operated most deviously also saw the Soviet Union brought to its knees – but while Washington was celebrating, Wall Street traders were enjoying their very own spoils, having developed a different form of global monopoly.

It was an era of greedy speculators, pin-striped power-suits, chunky chronographs and even chunkier cell phones, plus the obligatory stretch limos with boomerang TV antennae and a Lamborghini Countach for the weekend. We take a look back on the golden era of greed in disbelief, but with an equal dose of amusement and fascination. Then again, the ‘greed is good’ mantra didn’t exactly end with the 1990s… as we found out to our cost in 2008.