Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser; 3018; The Gala 30th Anniversary of W$WW/LR

Tonight celebrating its 30th anniversary as America's most popular program about the economy people and their money Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser is made possible by don't we get into. Who's equally at home stealing silicon. With Wi-Fi. Yields in cyberspace. With the question of services the answer is the people. Of the world. By A.G. Edwards committed professionals providing a full range of financial services and investment advice. A.G. Edwards trusted advice exceptional service. By Oppenheimer Funds. Where a long term approach to investing has helped put financial security in the hands of millions of Americans. Oppenheimer Funds the right way to invest. By the Kaufman fund. A small company aggressive growth

fund. And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. Live from Carnegie Hall Friday November 3rd. Ladies and gentlemen the newest work guys. Thanks. Or two. Thank you very much. You can imagine how encouraging it is for an

aspiring young performer. To get this kind of reception. One of the oldest jokes in this town has a visitor asking the New Yorker How do you get to Carnegie Hall. And the New Yorker answers. Practice practice practice. Well my friends I thought tonight that after 30 years of practicing I might be ready for my Carnegie Hall debut. But be gentle folks. After all. I'm just starting out. However we do hope to build an audience somewhere along the way. Call me crazy but I've always figured that they just had to be some people out there in America who wanted to learn how to make their money grow without being put to sleep in the process now. It was probably always just a pipe dream. Tonight we're going to celebrate that pipe dream with a few very special friends and a few very special guests. Looking

back on three incredible decades in which tens of millions of Americans came to realize that money matters were not just a plaything of the super rich that we folks on the outside were entitled to some legitimate inside information to. That ordinary people could get a handle on the economy. And that successful invest in building a better life for ourselves and our families. It was actually within the reach of you and me I hope we've played some part in that realization. When Wall Street Week first went on television in November 1970 it was not only the first national television program about money but I was then the only national economic correspondent or commentator on television. It was kind and I was there for a few years. Being first in a field of one. But it's even nicer today knowing that our loyal viewers continue to make us every week by

far the largest audience in the history of financial journalism. But what is still a margin of many millions. I guess we've got to be doing something right though I hesitate to speculate on what. But I didn't come all the way to Carnegie Hall to crow. Plainly. I'm really here to play the violin. Touch. And here to help me string you along. Three of our Hall of Fame panelists and three other authentic titans of American finance. Will look back a bit sure. But since we're far from ready to turn in what I hope you won't call our financial fiddles We're also going to look ahead to the next 30 years of you and your money. Before we do though let me take a brief moment to answer a question that has kept coming at me

over the decades Lou. What's the best investment you've ever made. That one is easy. It's my family and I'd like to introduce you to some of them right now starting with a very long term investment. My wife of 38 years Alexander re-attach. We'll. Cue our daughter Beverly. And her husband Tony Bilis you know. Feel. Their daughter the beautiful Samantha. Feel. Q Our second daughter Susan and her husband Elliot Wyman. Feel. And our third daughter Stacy Kaiser.

Feel. They all wanted to come tonight. My friends no man could ever have a greater fortune. Or. Feel. Now Maestro please tell the rest of the orchestra to warm up backstage. Their big moment is coming. But first let's see what kind of music they were making this past week in Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average helped us celebrate by making it three winning weeks in a row overcoming Friday jitters as Bonds took their worst hit in nearly four months. After a report that wages rose more than expected in October. The US demean hopes for early interest rate relief from the Federal Reserve for the week the Dow gained another two hundred twenty seven points making it six hundred twenty five in the past three weeks to close over ten thousand eight hundred. And not even the dire

prospect that one of the current presidential candidates might actually get elected next Tuesday. It could stop all our broader indexes from joining the party. With the technology bellwether Nasdaq enjoying its best week since July most of our Els who are resolute if nothing else will. Insist that the Dow will gain more than 5 percent in the next three months. But our halos again go to the three who correctly voted neutral 3 months ago. Since when the Dow has managed to advance a whopping one half of one percent. Heck I've seen faster movement than not doing the rush hour in Mid Manhattan. With me tonight to look backward and forward three of your favorite panelists all of the members of our program's Hall of Fame Frank Caprio is the only active panelist who has been with us since our very first program three decades ago in which he

appeared as an even younger man than he is today. Atlanta. The two. Or two. Martys why go has been with us for more than a quarter century during which time he has never stopped worrying. You are. Very far as a mere teenager having been with us just 18 years during which time she has managed to win both the hearts and minds of the American public. Let me ask each of you what has been the most significant change in the world of money since 1970 right. I think it's the enormous expanse of information both beginning in the 70s and today with the Internet. Information about investments spread so

quickly that you get a bigger market in a stock in about. 10 minutes. Are they really bear markets these days when you have it. Exhaust actually not what we've seen is rotation out of technology into the cyclical and then into something into the finance stocks. And that's probably very healthy because we're in the early 70s when you had a bear market the money fled to the sidelines. Today it rotates. So we're keeping the money in a casino to put a different spin on things. Exactly. MARTIN What's your view. Well when I was in high school I had a physics teacher that couldn't stand me and he tried to insult me and he said you you should go to business school. It was a hell. Which I did. There was a whole attitude there the business was something bad. And I think the biggest change has been a complete move towards capitalism breaking down the barriers of business is good capitalism is good Job creation is good profits are good and of course the stock market is going along with it.

What do you think caused that change. Hardworking people finally getting it right. Maybe Reagan had something to do with it. Lower taxation is breaking down of trade barriers. I don't think there is any one single of it I think the whole process of evolution. Mary can you tell us what it really was. Thirty years ago we were just beginning what became a very devastating inflation and that drove a lot of people out of the market into investments like CDs money market funds and as they sought to avoid what turned out to be more than a decade of very poor performance on Wall Street as 30 years later. We've seen a decade with the rise of the individual investor. Fifty percent of Americans are invested in stocks today directly or indirectly and that's caused much more educated investor to come to the fore helped by what Frank was referring to with a lot more information. I think that's very healthy for the United States. OK Frank now that we've got the past in perspective how about the next 30 years. What's

the biggest change we can look for volatility. We're going to have a wonderful opportunity. I think the Internet is going to be spread over 20 years and we really don't know what it's going to do for entertainment. Body What is it the unexpected. You're right that it won't be ready for that. If you look back 30 years ago you look at all the big glamour stocks of the day you know Xerox Polaroid or single digit companies now stock prices. So it's impossible to say I think you have to remain flexible in this going to be changes that we can't conceive of now. Who would have conceived of the internet 10 or 15 years ago. Very little first of all both gentlemen have mentioned the Internet. Let me pick up on that you look at the technology of the last 30 years it really just sped up. What we did it didn't change how we live. And I think over the next few decades will really see is the Internet which has already changed a lot of how we live and how we do business

accelerating that pace of change and I think that means that there's a tremendous amount of opportunity but I also think it means you raise the level of risk whenever you have that rapid change just because you agree with them on one point doesn't mean you're wrong. Thank you panelists such great advisors and great sports for so many years. Now before we meet tonight's special guests let's take a look at some highlights from a very special hour that will be seen immediately following this program on most PBS stations. And if that doesn't include you as call them. Find out when they're going to let you see it. It's our anniversary special and it's called Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser. The first 30 years it's been a program for all seasons and some fascinating locations. Some strange characters showed up from time to time. What's up

doc. Besides the market services everybody wants to get into the act. In total darkness. It's infrared illumination lets you know who is around and what they're saying. It's OK folks it's only a friendly neighborhood economic commentator. I'll be a little late for dinner tonight. Yes. Tips to I'm sure. Oh so hot. Well at least I always kept my dignity. Now let's say hello to three special guests and friends who are among the most powerful people in the world of money. But your Grasso has been chairman and chief executive officer of the New York Stock

Exchange since 1995. You may have seen us on TV earlier today when thanks to his expert guidance I rang the closing bell at the NYSE. Without shorting out the electrical system and bringing world finance to a complete halt. During that ceremony we were joined by the longest serving chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in history. Arthur Levitt who's been the FCC chairman since 1993. Or to. Sandy Weill is right at home here in Carnegie Hall. He's the chairman of its board of trustees in his spare time. He's the chairman and chief executive officer of Citi Group and a member of the Wall Street Week With Louis Rukeyser Hall of Fame. Thank you. Ah. Don't let me start by asking each of

you what is the most important development in the financial arena of the past 30 years. Well Lou first congratulations on not shorting out the system. And let me say I think it's the democratization of ownership realized in the course of your 30 years Lou. We've added 50 million investors to the marketplace here in the United States it's truly been a merger of Main Street and Wall Street and that proliferation of ownership literally to every household either directly or indirectly has brought about I think the strongest change our markets have ever experienced. When we went on the air there was no such thing as Nasdaq. How has that changed your life. It's made it a bit interesting. To me. But I think America is very fortunate to have two very strong markets each with a very different focus but each designed to serve the capital needs of some wonderful companies and some 50 plus million

new investors in our nation so wonderful you're never going to compete with them again you're so happy to have me on the plane. What was that name again. But what's But to answer that question. I think the most exciting development has been the empowerment. Of the individual investor. It's incredible how the focus in our markets shifted from institutions and corporations to individuals both in terms of products in terms of regulation in terms of information. We've got the best informed investors in the history of this country. One of your continuing to say is making sure that individual investors have equal access to information that's certainly a crusade in which we are interested. What's changing that. What's changing is we've passed a rule called regulation fair disclosure which calls for corporate America and analysts around the world. Alice in the United States to release

information to the public at the same time that they release it to anyone else no longer is the small investor going to play second fiddle to the corporations or analysts or anybody else. Some of you all know is not a plug in. I was some securities analysts who claim you're going to put them out of business if you deprive them of their edge. Are they right. No they underestimate the intelligence of America's investors who don't really need interpreters of information to understand that information you know that above all because you've been able to talk to America's investors in plain English and they're able to act on the kind of information that is better today than ever before. Thank you for that. You all. When we arrived on the scene plain English was in the illegal language on Wall Street.

Sandy you have helped change the last 30 years what you think the biggest I would say two things. Lou first at the beginning of the 30 year period the Stock Exchange up changing their rules to allow brokerage companies to go public and have access to the capital markets and author and I having a company then that was able to go public and be able to grow through the 70s. And finally at the end of the period the financial services modernization bill which was just passed a year ago that allows for functions functional regulation and allows banks and brokers and insurance companies to be part of the same entity that enables US companies to compete on a level playing field without foreign competitors. Your merger created the group would not have been possible even five years ago and we went on the air. Banks couldn't pay market rates of interest. They had regulation limiting what they could pay out over going to have any more changes freeing up more regulations I think in the future.

I think that we've seen you know really the advantages of deregulation all around the world with the other countries copying which started here in 1995 with the end of fixed rate commissions and how that's really added to the volumes on the various exchanges around the world and I think that we are in a period where a country companies are copying the capitalist system. They're privatizing government owned businesses everywhere. They're privatizing pension systems and it's just a fantastic time to be in the financial business and you know have the opportunity to participate in this global growth. The workers of the world united and said give us our stocks give us our stock options. Dick what's going to change most over the next 30 years. Well I think Sandy is right. It's just started. You know the world we live in today Internet driven

ownership based and certainly a time when countries around the world are modeling this wonderful system we've enjoyed in our great nation the dawning of an empowerment period of investors both here in the U.S. and around the world changed by technology changed by the desire to raise standards of living and basically driven by a free world an extraordinary time of opportunity. Can't wait. What do you think. I think we're moving very rapidly toward globalized Electronic Markets. And I think a lot of the products that we're seeing being offered to the public today will be consolidated I think some of the products make no sense at all. Others make infinite sense and I think they'll be a turn over in terms of what the public will be offered. One name a couple that don't make sense. I suspect futures on individual stocks will

disappear. They haven't appeared yet. Senator look in your crystal ball you are a great mover and shaker and you've always looked ahead. What's going to what else is going to change. I think the trend that we're in toward you know globalization and products and services going to places where companies can be the low cost producer will continue and that will continue to encourage consolidations and mergers and efficiencies really developing all over the world so that we can import efficiency and the Internet is going to drive that even faster. We're nearly out of time on time but the globalization you've just advocated is opposed by many labor unions and others speak to them. Well I think that the labor unions were opposed to naphtha. They thought that we would lose a lot of American jobs to Mexico. And what's happened several years after and after as Mexico is doing great. The U.S. has full employment and that has to be very

good and I think the same thing will happen with China. John is going to join the the Western economic system. I think that we're better off having a billion three million people as part of the system following our rules than outside the system and we want every one of them to be viewers every week. And then we do have to stop I want to thank my guest Dick Grasso our leavens any while and our panelists for joining me tonight and I hope you'll be back again in just a few minutes on most of the stations for that very special one hour program that has been 30 years in the making. Wall Street Week With Louis we guys are the first 30 years it contains an unforgettable selection of the people the wisdom and the laughter that have brought money sense and money fund to America for three decades. We couldn't have done it without you and I hope you'll join us and we'll be back at our old stand in Owings Mills Maryland next week when my guest will be Richard Bernstein the number cruncher for Merrill Lynch and we'll look beyond the election results to find out how much and exactly how things

really have changed for you and your money. Meanwhile this has been Wall Street Week. I'm Louis Rukeyser. Good night and thank you for your part in letting us have such a wonderful 30 years. With us through crisis. It's produced in association with Kaiser television incorporated by Maryland Public Television made possible by the. Challenger. Who can we turn to facing the economy as well. For a business services the answer was that people. Were going to. Buy A.G. Edwards providing a full range of personalized financial retirement and estate planning. A.G. Edwards trusted advice exceptional service. By Oppenheimer Funds. Every year millions of Americans place their

financial futures in the hands of one mutual fund company. Oppenheimer Funds the right way to invest. By the Kaufmann fund a small company aggressive growth fund. And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank you. Thank you. For the transcript of this program. Send $5 through transcripts. Of St. Louis Rukeyser public television owns Mills Maryland 2 1 1 1 7. This is PBS.