Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser; 2326; The Best of W$W with Louis Rukeyser

Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the annual financial support from viewers like you by the travelers over 30 million Americans benefit from our insurance investment services and managed health care. The travelers America's umbrella by M F S and FS helping you to a fund and institutional investors achieve their financial goals since 1924 and by Prudential Securities with more than fifty six hundred financial advisers nationwide Prudential Securities can help you invest your money wisely. Just Friday December 24. Good evening I'm Louis Rukeyser. Welcome to a very special edition of Wall Street week since Christmas Eve comes on a Friday this year. Our elves are up to their tiny ears and last minute assignment from Santa Claus. It turns out that in this self forgiving age

practically every little boy and girl in the world claims to have been good this year and they all want the hottest new issues in the sack so to make sure that nobody but the reindeer has to hear the crack of Santas whip tonight. We're giving those busy little elves and all their human teammates a night off and presenting you tonight with something that I hope will gladden your weekend. A taped package of some of the events on this program. If you were to have told us with their particular favorites in 1993 timeless moments and authentic highlights they provided a special kick in a truly remarkable year. I hope they add to your very special holiday pleasure tonight. But even though we're suspending just for this one week our usual format we thought it just wouldn't be Christmas if you didn't get at least a brief look at our elves. Those 10 clever technical market analysts who each week dutifully peer into their crystal balls and tell us where the stock market will be six months hence.

Just as if they really knew. They're far removed from such mundane mercenary consideration tonight but they insisted that they did have one very important message for you anyhow. So let's zoom to the north pole as they take a brief break from their nonstop toy making and tell us what that message for you is. Well at least they got that one right. And Merry Christmas to you two little elves. Even when you're poles apart. And while we're on that musical note one of the indisputable viewer favorites of 1993 was a thrilling refutation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's dictum that there are no second acts in American lives. It all began a year earlier with one of the international cultural highlights of 1992. Now before we meet tonight special guest it's time for a feature we've never had on this program before and may never have

again. Philip H Bowers a retired New York Life Insurance manager in the Grange Park Illinois composed a song and taped it with the invaluable help of his wife Carolyn. And we thought you might enjoy it as we did this version of what he calls those weary stock market blues. I've been rich and I've been poor. Which is better. But now I've got news. Oh Mary stock market mood. I lost my shirt burro and my shoes. I can show you how to lose. When I buy into chips. They soon turn into cod chips. Thanks to Wall Street Week. I was dancing with the L..

Those witty invest Bert's say we should try it by ourselves. I'm not a miser. I just want to be like Lewis through Kaiser. I just love great art don't you. Music lovers around the globe might feel that nothing could ever eclipse that performance. But lo and behold emboldened by their rocket like ascent to the top of the Wall Street charts and possibly even by some of the advice they've heard here between courses Phil and Carolyn Bowers struck again in 1993 with a sequel he calls my bull market joy. All right. I've got an up market on. My head and I ask that they're in.

That's gonna be my way or the stock market have turned to gold. Now we can travel will be sure who gets credit. I began watching Wall Street Week is the reason why the LVM panels and Louis Rukeyser. And just plain luck have made one old happy guy. Yeah it's always a joy to help young talent get ahead. And speaking of talent the surprise guest in 1993 was a California money manager who most people better remember as proper John Wayne Rogers a fellow who has successfully gone from MASH to cash and explain why finance has been an abiding interest of his throughout his career. There was a time when actors were really considered to be stupid and lost a lot of money. And I decided early on if there was going to happen to me I wanted to be the author of my own demise.

You know there may be a lesson there for all of us non actors too. Of all the actors on the world's economic stage none has given the US tougher competition in the past generation than Japan. So when we originated a special edition of Wall Street Week from Tokyo last May we took a deeper look beyond the nationalist emotions and political oratory on both sides. To help us understand what really lies behind today's strained relations between Japan and the United States almost everything in modern Japan is a sometimes only easy blend of the past and the future ancient traditions of a life in ways often foreign to the American spirit. Part of the reason is simple longevity. When European settlers first set foot on what is now the United States Japanese society had already been in place for more than a thousand years.

Yes. Elements of this Tokyo ceremony have been performed since the year 552 when Buddhism first arrived from China. But reverence for the ways of yesterday has not kept the Japanese name adapting with remarkable shrewdness to the world of tomorrow. These are the more familiar images of modern Japan. Factory after factory churning out quality products with military precision products that abound for the driveways homes and offices of millions of Americans. The big names of Japanese industry have become part of the fabric of American life. The reverse is conspicuously not here in Tokyo's electronic center. American products are almost invisible. You won't find a Hoover or an Electrolux here. Last year alone Americans spent almost 50 billion dollars more on Japanese products

than the Japanese spent on ours. When did this pattern begin. And what truly has caused this enormous disparity. Some of the answers may surprise you. Bogus 1945. Hundreds of years of Japanese military imperialism end in a single week. Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I vaporized by atomic bomb Tokyo those spared from nuclear attack is reduced to rubble. The Japanese surrender and within a month American troops occupied Japan. At American insistence. Japan renounces war. And agrees to a clause in its new constitution prohibiting any involvement in future military conflicts.

Japan's economic recovery begins slowly. But then in 1950 a new war erupts. The Korean War and Japan's nearest neighbor is torn apart. The United States always eager to disarm at the first sign of peace is caught off guard. The need for military hardware in Korea is sudden and urgent. And so the US Department of Defense orders thousands of trucks from a small nearly bankrupt Japanese company. Its name is Toyota. And the industrial resurgence of Japan began. For now with the Korean War. America Confronted the new world enemy the Cold War focused our attention on the astonishing rise of Soviet military strength and U.S. foreign policy became dictated almost entirely by the need to counter the threat from Moscow. Japan the old enemy now became crucial to the new American strategy.

Japan's geographical position was perfect for blocking the Soviet fleet based invite of us stock from dominating the Pacific. Japan a dreaded foe just a few years before quickly became a trusted ally. In 1960 the Tokyo government granted the US the right to establish permanent military bases on Japanese soil as a result. The Japanese archipelago became in effect an unsinkable Pacific fleet for the US and the Soviet threat to the Pacific was affectively new colognes. In 1961 the Japanese built this mission concept. Now the world famous bullet train. Right now we're traveling at 140 miles an hour. And I'd you can see the ride is safe and comfortable. The bullet train quickly became a supreme line symbol of Japan's rebirth and of this nation's nak reply in the most modern technology in highly practical ways. While the U.S. was mean. Japan was

rebuilt. Japanese goods once thought of as shoddy and imitative soon developed a worldwide reputation for quality manufacturing while Americans began buying up Japanese products by the boatload. And Washington encouraged this industrial growth in Japan. Even after the balance of trade shifted dramatically in Japan's favor. Minor economic discomfort was viewed as a small price to pay for such a valuable security alliance. But all of that is over now particularly since the Soviet Union is no more. President Clinton's message to Tokyo has been it's the economy. We as I wasn. Not surprisingly this change has not sat well with traditionalist Japan. This is the heart of Japanese tradition Kioto. Japan's ancient capital and one of the bullet trains original destinations. The city is a

picture postcard explosions of the past recalling with breathtaking loveliness the dependable graceful serene and orderly a nation and a people secure in their heritage and completely isolated from the rest of civilization. The isolation has vanished with the Shoguns in today's Japan and the economy is heavily dependent on export markets. Most importantly the American market there simply isn't enough consumer demand here to support the growth on which Japanese companies depend. In fact one of the most striking economic facts about Japan today is the contrast between the continuing growth of the nation's giant corporations and the surprisingly modest standard of living of the average Japanese. Did you meet ko rule Mori. He's 40 years old and is the assistant general manager of foreign exchange for the bank where he has worked for 17 years. More reason is what the

Japanese call a salaryman. Though it current exchange rate C earns the equivalent of one hundred twenty seven thousand dollars a year. But his daily regimen is notably short on what Americans would consider the good life. Each day he spends almost three hours commuting to and from Chiba a suburb of Tokyo. After about a mile of walking through crowded trains and a bus ride Morey is finally home. He and his wife at Sukkot what their 950 square foot apartment a year ago for $450000. Even on Saturday while their two sons are in school we go with a rule and Zuko as they look at some larger house. They get almost a boy to buy one like this. That is if they already own the land. A lot. Just large enough to build this home outside of Tokyo would cost at least one and a half million dollars.

The problem is this house inexpensive and that land is expensive to ban all together. It's too much. Land is so precious here that even Japan's economic elite live modestly by American standards. This is Dr. Michi Yuki. When O'Hara is a prestigious figure in Japanese industry executive advisor to any U.S. corporation where he has enjoyed a long and successful career he earns the equivalent of two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year. Even so Dr when Harris says the only reason he can afford to live in Tokyo is because his wife's parents allowed him to build his home in their backyard. We can't do anything about it because and I mean since this source said to me that one regular intelligence that many Japanese do allow themselves is this sushi a cuisine that has lately become one of the most popular Japanese exports to the U.S.

to many Americans munching their macro and savoring their sea urchins. This is the quintessence of things Japanese. But there are economic surprises here too. Ups every year Japan imports half a million tonnes of fish from of all places the United States. So American products are not exactly unknown here nor do you have to sell fish to tip the import scales in Japan. Truth is young Japanese are remarkably drawn to American music movies and fast food. American pop culture is big business in Japan. In fact the Coca-Cola company makes even more money in Japan than it does in the United States. And oh yeah there is one more huge American success story in Japan that you should know. He is Chad Rowe. Known here as the sumo

wrestler a key Bono. Born in Hawaii. Rohan is the first non-Japanese ever to reach the exalted sumo rank of Yokozuna grand champion. And grand he undeniably is. Six foot seven and 473 pounds at last weighed in a land where direct confrontation is usually avoided. At least one American has made it big. Throwing his weight. One of our conclusions in Tokyo was that America's most formidable weapon in the battle to open that country's markets may have to be forged in Japan itself as long docile Japanese consumers begin to demand the better standard of living to which Japan's wealth entitles them and which freer trade could help provide. But while we wait for that happy event or rather on the road show this year found millions of remarkable average people right here in our own middle west rebuilding

the region after a devastating floods and continuing to construct an economy notable for its diversity and stability. And speaking of enterprise and diversity in the Middle West our special program from St. Louis found that the latest moneymaking attraction up and down the Mississippi is really nothing new at all. Yes riverboat gambling as we turn to the spa. There are more lists for the delight of players up and down the nation's greatest Audrie. This is the casino. Only three decks of floating gave me room for a $5 fee. You can take it to our group and maybe if you get lucky. Even when you're five bucks for. J-Lo and Robin on each your heart out. One of the special joys of doing this program for more than 23 years is the warm family relationship we've developed with our regular weekly viewers new and

old. I hear from lots of you every week. Read every comment and love to learn what you liked what you didn't. And sometimes the most fun of all. Well you spotted a mistake. Take that innocent night last March when I was reading of your question to a panelist. How would you respond to phillip johnson of Pittsburgh who writes me as follows. One of the most famous movie lines of all time was born when Gilberto Rojas playing a Mexican bandit said to Humphrey Bogart badges. I don't got to show you no stinking badges. Lately however Mr Chaska continues I notice that everywhere I go people are wearing and showing badges. Well I suppose the bad guy was wary and should have read Hey dummy. As I opened up one week later. And now before we turn to some viewer questions let me report again on what may be the most astonishingly well-informed audience in television history. Last week a viewer who smelled an investment opportunity in the proliferation of badges in America recalled the

famous line about badges in the class a 1948 movie Treasure of Sierra Madre a line he attributed to Gilberto Rojas from every corner of the land Coast to Coast Midwest to Florida came letters saying not so. The Mexican bandit who so memorably derided badges forty five years ago recalled flawlessly was in fact played by Alfonso Bhadoria and by way of setting the record straight for senor but we thought it only fair to call him back for an encore tonight. I just plain got no badges. We don't even know if I just I don't have to show your honesty too much. You folks don't let me get away with anything do you. And since communication is the name of the game around here it seems appropriate to wind up tonight with a reprise of our July review of some of the memorable telephones of the past century. It wasn't too many years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in

1876 that this turn of the century model was all the rage. It has one feature that many a modern day telephone or would welcome only one person can talk at a time. The trick of getting food to the operator in the early days was all in the wrist. Which was particularly useful for crank calls. If the crank on this one didn't work it was another way of getting the operator right on the button. And if you got tired of yelling into this 1920s model with its upright speaking Cup I suppose you could always double as a shot glass or perhaps a bubble bath for hummingbirds. Whereas by the 1930s there was nothing is appropriate in or out of the movies as this candle stick model for shouting Stop the presses sweetheart and get me rewrite. In the 1940s this nickel was all you needed to operate this public telephone.

It was two decades later before the rotary dial was out and push came to shove. As a nation for the first time I reached out in touch tones someone today incidentally with this futuristic model we've come full circle in terms of telephoning techniques and now once again need only speak the name of the party we're trying to call into the now electronically operated receiver like this. The White House particularly useful for numbers that you have to call several times a day. And anyone who has tried to make a confidential call in a crowded airport will surely be nostalgic for this old fashioned telephone booth which not only provided privacy for telephone conversations but had some other useful functions as well. Oops wrong show.

Don't try this at home. And so it went in a year that range from Oriental splendor to comic book farce. Were there other events we might have reprise tonight. You betcha we could have talked about some of the terrific moneymaking ideas that were recommended on this program this year but what did they have to do with the holiday spirit. For that matter we could have talked about some of the lousy moneymaking ideas that were recommended on this program this year but tonight at least charitie before all just for one week two we will refrain from mentioning any of the politicians on either side of the aisle who generally supply us with the lion's share of our most bizarre and implausible material. We wish them all the best. The world of comedy needs them. Next week though it's back to normal as we replace Santa Claus with the Marquis de sod. It's all around you will New Year's party. And in addition to switching from this week's sweet milk of human kindness to a decent medium priced root champagne.

We're going to reveal the winners and sinners among our stock selecting panelists for wizards whose picks this past year were dramatically successful will be on hand to tell us precisely where they'll be putting their money in 1994. It's our annual festival of black ties and red faces and I hope you'll come. Meanwhile this has been Wall Street Week. I'm Louis Rukeyser Wishing you all the gold frankincense and myrrh your heart could desire all wrapped up beautifully in sublime holiday happiness and to all a good night. Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser is a production of Maryland Public Television made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the annual financial support from viewers like you by the travelers providing American business with insurance investment services and managed health care the travelers America's umbrella by M F S and FS helping usual fund and institutional investors achieve their financial goals since 1924 and by Prudential

Securities with more than fifty six hundred financial advisers nationwide Prudential Securities can help you invest your money wisely for a printed transcript of this program. Send $5 to transcripts. Wall Street Week With It was rigged guys are always Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. Transcripts are also available to subscribers of the Dow Jones news retrieval service. Street Week With Louis Rukeyser was produced by Maryland Public Television which is soley responsible for its content. 6b.