Thread: "Leverage mentality"

Someone asked me what does "leverage mentality" mean in the following sentence: "That was inexcusable, a short-sighted exchange of cash for dignity, the high price of irresponsible management and a leverage mentality." (This is a part of a critical review of one of Guggenheim presentations).

I explained that person my understanding of this phrase, but I'd like to know what native speakers think about it.

Probably need a contribution from an American but I'll guess the context here a bit: I’ve never herad of Guggenheim – no really, never!

In this context ‘mentality’ means a focus and a way of thinking.

‘Leverage’ can mean the amount of debt used to finance a company’s assets. A company with more debt than equity is considered to be ‘highly leveraged’. Or it can mean, more generally, to gain positional advantage with the power to act more effectively.

Maybe the Guggenheim people gave up something for cash, something important, something worth more than money.

In business lingo, "leverage" is often a euphemism for "brute force".

I ran that frase by few Americans just now. None of us are sure of what was meant. As we say here, " you probably had to be there".

Although I may be completely wrong(funny I'm saying that when talking about my own language), if the meaning isn't already clear, I think it's simply the mentality of gaining leverage to get what you want. Of course, that may be what you had a question about, in which case, it would depend on the situation.

Originally Posted by Pravit

I think it's simply the mentality of gaining leverage to get what you want.

That is almost exactly what I told that person; but I wanted to get some feedback from native speakers. In other words, I think that the person who wrote that criticism wanted to say that the Guggenheim management is using art not for the art's sake, but in order to achieve some other goals (wrong goals, from the critic's viewpoint), or something like that. Or that they run that particular exhibition not to give the public access to some works of art, but primarily to earn money or something. Kind of "we-do-it-not-because-it-is-a-right-thing-to-do-but-because-it-gives-us-what-we-want" mentality.

Originally Posted by translations.nm.ru

Kind of "we-do-it-not-because-it-is-a-right-thing-to-do-but-because-it-gives-us-what-we-want" mentality.

That makes perfect sense.