January 28, 2016

Louis Richard “Lou” Rukeyser was born January 30, 1933 and was best known for starting the popular PBS series Wall$treet Week with Louis Rukeyser in 1970. Rukeyser was the one of four boys with a financial journalist as their father, Merryle Rukeyser (He wrote for the New York Tribune). He graduated from Princeton where he took pride in the fact that his roommate was Wayne Rogers who would go on to play “Trapper John” on the hit tv series M.A.S.H. Rukeyser spent the next eleven years as a political and foreign correspondent for the Baltimore Sun newspapers. He then moved to ABC television as economics correspondent and commentator. He left ABC in 1973.

In 1970 Wall$treet Week was the first tv show that focused on Wall Street and the economy. Rukeyser was admired for a combination of that tailored blue suit, white haired charm, plainspokenness, and most importantly his ability to simplify the arcane workings of the stock market to his millions of viewers. He was named by People as the only sex symbol of “the dismal science” of economics, Rukeyser won numerous awards and honors over his lifetime. On his weekly show he always had a panel of financial leaders, and the show ran like a round table of educated discussion where everyone behaved and listened with respect. Nothing like this exists today. Some of our favorite investment gentlemen that came on his show were Peter Lynch, John Templeton, William Shreyer, Alan Greenspan, Paul Samuelson and many more.

All good things do come to an end or as Rukeyser would say “Trees can’t grow to the sky” (usually in regards to the inevitability of the market going up and down), and in 2002 Rukeyser left Wall$treet Week due to a dispute where network executives wanted younger Fox channel hosts to take over his position, he was only 69. The competition from the “talking head” channels like CNBC were causing Wall$treet Week to attempt to make changes to try to keep up with ratings of competitors. However as soon as Rukeyser left, the show collapsed as viewers missed their familiar face and voice of reason of 32 years. The main kernel of knowledge to take with you from the days of men such as Louis Rukeyser was to stop focusing so much on short term thinking and really focus on the long term. Investment professionals who are independent from the big institutions, who have time and experience under their belts are the ones to listen to during times of fear. The minute you turn the channel to CNBC and Jim Cramer, we lose you to the constant chaos of instant gratification that today’s investors are obsessed with.

The night of the 1987 crash, Louis Rukeyser spoke these words at his opening that still ring true to this day: “Okay let’s start with what’s really important tonight: It’s just your money, not your life. Everybody who really loved you a week ago still loves you tonight. That’s a heck of a lot more important than the numbers on your brokerage statement. The robins will sing, the crocuses will bloom, babies will gurgle and puppies will curl up in your lap and drift happily to sleep even as the stock market goes temporarily insane. Now that that’s all fully in perspective let me say OUCH & Eeekk & ‘Medic’!”.

 

To learn more about Louis Rukeyser:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Rukeyser

Watch an episode of Wall$treet Week:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFn1G2goDQw

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