20 Questions: Louis Rukeyser

Louis Rukeyser was born with a ticker tape in his mouth. His father enjoyed a considerable reputation as a syndicated financial columnist; but despite Rukeyser's own career as an award-winning economic journalist, he is most visible as the host of PBS' long-running "Wall Street Week" and the syndicated "Louis Rukeyser's Business Journal." His wit, his expertise and his fervor for the little guy come across so intensely that they almost make one forget he earns a high six-figure income.

Warren Kalbacker caught up with him first at the close of a hectic day's trading and then continued to check in with him for several months. "Rukeyser enjoys talking quite a bit," Kalbacker told us. "The only problem I had during our conversations was interrupting him to ask the questions."

1.

[Q] Playboy: Have you ever been burned in the stock market?

[A] Rukeyser: Oh, sure. I've made virtually every possible mistake in investing. But I've done some things right, too, and I've tried to avoid making the same mistakes again. I have a great deal of authentic compassion for the small investor--probably because I am one.

2.

[Q] Playboy: But surely you must get inside information and hot tips.

[A] Rukeyser: All over the country, every week, people are trying to make me rich. And if I had followed all the advice given by those charitable people, I would be even broker than I am today.

3.

[Q] Playboy: Monday-morning trading in a particular stock has been known to be especially heavy after a mention on Wall Street Week. Is there a chance that such power will corrupt you?

[A] Rukeyser: Obviously, with an audience of 10,000,000--twice the circulation of The Wall Street Journal--there will be some impact. But I think no one has been more responsible than we have in that area. Whenever anyone makes a recommendation, I remind the audience that he may be wrong. Anyway, hot tips aren't what Wall Street Week is all about. I think the real value of the program is to help people get a handle on the economy.

4.

[Q] Playboy: What lured you to commercial television?

[A] Rukeyser: I hadn't been seeking any new project, but a number of flattering proposals were made to me by intelligent people. I turned all of them down. But with this new show--Louis Rukeyser's Business Journal--the people seemed just right, the format right and the timing fine. It's nothing like Wall Street Week. The new show covers the whole range of business and economics without the investing focus of WSW. I hope 60 minutes of Louis Rukeyser on television each week will not result in overexposure. I suspect the nation might find 70 or 80 minutes a bit much.

5.

[Q] Playboy: The average person's knowledge of economics has increased tremendously in recent years. How do you see your personal role in popularizing the topic?

[A] Rukeyser: From the start, we've taken the broad view that Wall Street has always been a metaphor for money. If you say "Economics" to the average person, the chin gets a little heavy and hits the chest, and the eyelids begin to droop. But if you say "Money," the eyelids flash up, the nostrils flare and you have his full attention. Money is one of the two chief preoccupations of the average person and the only one you can discuss during the family hour on television.

6.

[Q] Playboy: Who are the elves and why are they a source of derision?

[A] Rukeyser: "The elves" is a term that I invented to refer to technical market analysts. Those are the people in Wall Street who will take a squiggle on a chart, a wriggle on a graph, a little piece of witch's hair and a bit of eye of newt, put them all together in a steaming vat, and then purport to tell you where General Motors will close a week from next Thursday. There are those people who take that kind of thing very seriously and I guarantee that if you follow that index religiously and use it as the central guide to your own investing behavior, it will be right. Sometimes.

7.

[Q] Playboy: Do you feel it's your duty to pester those staid brokers, bankers and economists who appear on your shows?

[A] Rukeyser: Yes; I try to needle the stuffy. With some people, whose reputations have exceeded their achievements, the one unforgivable thins; to do is to cite their actual forecasting records. Really, there are only two categories of people in Wall Street: the ones who've been absolutely wrong about the market at times and the liars. And generally, the subject has been treated with altogether too much somberness, and that has often been a disguise for poor results. So I try to poke a little fun at those fellows. I'm there for the viewer, and if the fat cats don't like it, that's their headache.

8.

[Q] Playboy: Do the fat cats scratch back?

[A] Rukeyser: Every time I mention the name of any political figure, we get angry mail. Some people suggest we ought to stay out of politics, and my response to them is that I will be happy to stay out of politics if the politicians will stay out of the economy.

However, I'm deeply grateful to our political leaders and economic leaders, who provide me each week with more raw material for comedy than an entire team of writers could provide. if you had to invent those fellows, it would be hard work.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Aren't you glad you didn't have to invent Joseph Granville?

[A] Rukeyser: He is just the latest in a long line of people who claim to be able to call short-term stock-market movements. By now, it should be evident that the market has stubbornly and repeatedly refused to honor his forecasts. Of course, his personality is refreshingly flamboyant in an industry thought to be rather drab. Without the merchants of doom and gloom, I would certainly have a lot fewer people of whom to make fun. But I find them diverting in the same way I find a horror movie diverting. That's a great way for a person with no particular expertise to make a living. And when people hear that kind of prediction, they think they're getting the inside story. I, on the other hand, do think that we'll muddle through.

I'm not by nature a sadistic person, but I would like to make a cruel suggestion: Ignore Joseph Granville.

10.

[Q] Playboy: People are obsessed with financial matters--in the same way they are obsessed by sex. Do you see any relation between the two?

[A] Rukeyser: Sex and money are the two chief interests of the average person. Money is sexy. We saw that for generations in the mating habits of gorgeous women who selected men who were old, fat and ugly but who had that intensely erotic quality--wealth. In recent years, as women have discovered the pleasures of collecting a few bucks for themselves, we have seen both sides of the erotic spectrum extend into the financial sphere. And, incidentally, I find that women are better at this than men. One of the biggest myths in the financial business is that it's basically a male profession and that women should dutifully take advice from the highly experienced male professionals. The reality is quite different. Those women who have taken investment seriously have tended, on average, to do better at it than the average man.

11.

[Q] Playboy: Do you have groupies?

[A] Rukeyser: Yes; but they all seem to be over 80 and living on fixed incomes.

12.

[Q] Playboy: What are your favorite turnons?

[A] Rukeyser: My wife and daughters and a capital gain. I also get secret salacious satisfactions out of good food and wines. In the early days of Wall Street Week, one of the first signs that we were attracting a substantial audience was when we passed the Julia Child show in numbers of viewers. And a television columnist, on the theory that everyone's a backbiter in this business, telephoned me and asked me what I thought about that achievement. And I said that I hadn't met Julia Child but admired her tremendously and if she were half as interested in money as I was in food, we would get along fine.

13.

[Q] Playboy: Would you want your daughter to marry a stockbroker?

[A] Rukeyser: If his other habits were good.

14.

[Q] Playboy: What is your hedge against inflation?

[A] Rukeyser: Living well. For example, if you can afford a Rolls-Royce, which I cannot, that's a very good investment. Not only may the car itself increase in value but, meanwhile, the Government cannot tax the psychic satisfaction you get from driving it. Beyond that, all the wonderful wines I've drunk and all those terrific terrines are in the category of "They can't take that away from me." I don't mean you should fall away into hedonism, particularly if you've got people who depend on you, but I think we shouldn't forget about the here and now.

15.

[Q] Playboy: Do you gamble?

[A] Rukeyser: I love to gamble. I get a little bit less of a kick out of it now than I used to, because I can't be at the tables in Las Vegas for 20 minutes before six people have said to me, as if it were the funniest remark of the year, "Hey, you find this a better death than Wall Street?" But I've gambled all over the world. I don't gamble with the milk money and I don't tell myself that it's a form of investment. It's a form of pleasure.

16.

[Q] Playboy: What is more important than money?

[A] Rukeyser: A lot of things. Your family's more important than money; your personal sense of yourself; your ability to live with yourself. But money's not to be sneered at. Money itself can be liberating. I always tell people not to overemphasize money. But I've found in my own life, living all over the world, seeing people of all economic statuses, living among them, that one of the best ways to keep money in perspective is to have a little bit of it. If you're concerned about where your next meal is coming from, that will obsess you beyond any other consideration in life. If you've been able to make a buck or two, then maybe you'll have time to go to a concert or an art gallery or to read a book.

17.

[Q] Playboy: Isn't there something of the guru somewhere inside Louis Rukeyser?

[A] Rukeyser: I don't stare at my navel a great deal of the time, but my real prediction is that the Eighties will be the decade of common stocks. The Government has pretty well mucked up the American economy, and I would favor a little less mucking up in the next generation. Our needs will be served by a greater degree of individual liberty than has been customary in this or any other society. We also have to get over the idea that business is the enemy, that profits are antisocial and that capitalism is a dirty word. The key to better living is a healthy private economy. Government never created prosperity for anyone.

18.

[Q] Playboy: Can you shed some light on the current state of the economy? We thought business types had put one of their own in the Oval Office. Yet they don't seem to be as rich or as happy as they'd like.

[A] Rukeyser: The chief problem is that Reagan has yet to put our money where his mouth is. He's often talked revolution, but his proposals have turned out to be popguns. The financial markets caught on to this before the press did and they got scared. Reagan wasn't really doing it. Hatchet jobs make for headlines, but early on, seven major programs were exempted from budget cuts at the same time there was supposed to be a defense increase. All the cuts occurred in the "easy" part of the budget. The fact that you've managed to inflict pain on individuals doesn't mean that you've made an attack on the runaway portions of the budget. We simply have to reduce the portion of our incomes that goes to the Federal Government.

Now, Wall Street is not exclusively inhabited by mossback Republicans. When economic conditions are right, the financial markets will perform with enthusiasm under a Democratic president. When conditions are wrong, as Nixon and Ford found out, Wall Street won't let supposed partisan loyalty stand in the way of giving a raspberry to the Government of the day. Money is more serious than politics.

19.

[Q] Playboy: Will you give us a hot tip?

[A] Rukeyser: I was pleased to see that the excessive overpricing of some of the great wines has receded. I remember 12 years ago, I paid $19 for a truly great bottle of wine. Five years later, the same wine was selling for $200 a bottle. I was delighted to see last year it was down below $100. If the price keeps going down, I may buy another.

20.

[Q] Playboy: How about picking an issue for us?

[A] Rukeyser: Romanée-Conti. When I die, I'd like my ashes to be scattered over la domaine de la Romanée-Conti. But I'm sure the proprietors, with their good sense about what helps the wine, will forbid it.