WSW: Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Summary &amp; Discussion $treet

Top 19. May 1, 1999 5:25 AM

» SteveT - Getting your moneies worth

John Bogle was on Wall Street Week last night. Much of the time was talking about how many Mutual fund Companies are not serving share holders by having high expenses, low returns etc. Of course Mr. Bogle pointed out the advantages of Index Funds. One thing I have never heard mentioned was, I have yet to see an Index Fund that is allowed to use derivatives which can add to risk. Ask investors with Long term Capital Management or Orange County Ca. residents about derivatives. The nice thing about Indexing is you really only have to decide if you are in or out of the market. After last nights show I did take a close look at the sponsors list, they were to name a few a local Brokerage firm, local Insurance Company hawking annunities, Prudential, A.G. Edwards, and Oppenheimer. I wonder if they feel they got their moneies worth last night?

-- posted by SteveT

Top 20. May 2, 1999 10:50 AM

» Slick - Bogle's Son

I thought it was interesting , that Bogle's son is trying to be the indexes, with an actively managed account ( I assume ) with Vanguard. According to Mr. Bogle, he is successful, ..so far!

Best Regards---Slick

-- posted by Slick

the Rukeyser/Abelson/Brinker circus

Top 21. Nov 28, 1999 5:20 PM

» JenL_2 - Rukeyser/Dudack/Abelson/Brinker Brouhaha

Rande Spiegelman summarizes the Rukeyser/Dudack/Abelson/Brinker brouhaha on the "Ask Rande" thread:

Alan Abelson's comments about Louis Rukeyser in 11/22 Barron's are posted on the "MoneyTalk Summaries" thread:

Sunday 11/21 MoneyTalk

The e-mail explanation that Rukeyser sent to those that e-mailed him about the Gail Dudack incident is posted on the "Brinker Free Discussion Site" thread:

Louis Rukeyser Responds

You can listen to the 11/22 Brinker MoneyTalk show where BB and callers discuss the Rukeyser/Abelson/Dudack hullabaloo by downloading mp3 files of the show on the "Recording Radio Talk Show Hosts" thread:

BB on mp3

These letters to the editor are from 11/29 Barron's:

The Dudack Chronicles

To the Editor:

I take offense with Alan Abelson's lambasting of Louis Rukeyser (Up & Down Wall Street, November 22). I agree, if what Abelson says is true about how Rukeyser ended his program's relationship with Gail Dudack, it was indeed uncouth of him to cut her off so sharply (by e-mailing her cancellation).

However, I have watched Rukeyser's program for over 25 years and have profited handsomely from my viewing. Why should someone like Dudack, who has been consistently wrong for so long, be left on the elves' panel? The purpose of the elves is to forecast stock-market direction.
Abelson and some others at Barron's have been predominantly bearish for a long time as well. You probably bought gold at $400 an ounce and are still waiting for your ship to come in. To be sure, someday, Abelson and Dudack will both be right. But for now, they are wrong.
Rukeyser's bullishness may be overdone, and maybe he should begin assuming a more cautious bias. However, records speak for themselves; Rukeyser's bullishness has been the correct call. He deserves some accolades!

JEFF MOEN
Dixon, Iowa

To the Editor:

How dare Alan Abelson castigate Mr. R. for lack of class! Rukeyser's pre-broadcast "Dear Gail" e-mail shows tremendous growth from his infamous on-air blindsiding of former chief elf Bob Nurock several years ago. With Nurock's departure, Wall Street Week's technical index morphed into its current state of stupidity. Gail is much better off serving her clients and not playing this silly game.

As for the show itself, it is truly sad that a brilliant innovation in its day remains suspended in time, except for changes in furniture. I tune in these days only when there is a guest worth watching, as the rest of the program has degraded into a content-free exercise in ego gratification.

HARVEY R. GREENBERG
Westford, Massachusetts

To the Editor:

Eureka! In his characteristically misguided diatribe, Alan Abelson inadvertently supplies the answer to a mystery that has baffled savvy investors for decades: How can a financial columnist be so unfailingly wrong about the stock market for more than a generation?

The answer, he now reveals, is that he is tied up at deadline time and unable to watch Wall Street Week, which has consistently and correctly guided the largest audience in the history of financial journalism throughout the greatest bull market since Moses left Mount Sinai while Abelson kept stubbornly, and irritably, pointing in the wrong direction.

Clearly, it would be a public service if you find it impossible to change Abelson's hours, for us all to chip in and buy him a VCR, so he can record the program and begin to learn what's actually been going on in the world of finance all these years. I will be happy to kick things off with a $10 contribution, as a public service to any Barron's readers who might still be foolish enough to take this perennial Wrong Way Corrigan seriously.

LOUIS RUKEYSER
Owings Mills, Maryland

Alan Abelson replies

Louis Rukeyser is as transparent in print as he is on the air. What in the world does my market myopia have to do with his brutish treatment of Gail Dudack?

Still, I'm truly touched by his generous offer. However, I already own a state-of-the-art VCR, programmed to summarily reject anything that's pontifical, sophomoric and dull. Which explains why I've been deprived, alas, of the pleasure of seeing so much as a single one of Rukeyser's offerings.

May I respectfully suggest that he invest his $10 in a course in civilized behavior? I realize the odds of it having a substantive effect are long-but I'm an incurable optimist.

.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 22. Nov 28, 1999 5:27 PM

» DennisL - Abelson and Rukeyser

Thanks for posting the letters to Barron's, Jen. I read them with amusement. It looks like these two are quickly stooping down to the level of two children sitting in a sandbox, throwing shovels full of sand at each other. Sad, indeed.

-- posted by DennisL

Top 23. Dec 16, 1999 3:14 PM

» Kirk - ALAN BOND IN ALLEGED IN KICKBACK DEAL

CBSM 12/16 13:45 SEC ACCUSES PENSION FUND MANAGER ALAN BOND IN ALLEGED KICKBACK DEAL ACCORDING TO CNBC.

FOCUS - Fund manager indicted in kickback scheme (Is he a WSW elf?)

04:00 p.m Dec 16, 1999 Eastern

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A prominent New York pension fund manager has been indicted on charges of taking more than $6 million in kickbacks of commissions paid to brokerage firms where he steered clients, including the National Basketball Association.

Alan Bond, president and chief investment officer of Albriond Capital Management, formerly known as Bond Procope Capital Management, was indicted by a Manhattan federal grand jury Wednesday on 11 counts of conspiracy, fraud, bribery and making false statements.

Bond, 38, of Upper Montclair, N.J. was also sued in a related civil case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC alleged that the Harvard-educated Bond, who is a frequent guest on PBS' ``Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser,' used the kickbacks to buy more than 75 luxury and antique cars, a large home and beachfront condominium in Florida, and on shopping sprees at Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany & Co.

The alleged victims of the scheme include the NBA's pension plan, the retirement funds of the Washington Metropolitan Area
Transit Authority, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation
Authority, and the Ohio Police and Fireman's Disability Pension
Board.

John Siffert, Bond's lawyer, said his client plans to plead not
guilty to the charges. ``We expect him to be vindicated.'

The SEC said Bond had about 25 clients and more than $600
million under management. The clients were mostly union and
government pension funds, with the Washington transit fund
being the largest.

``Although Mr. Bond's clients were mostly pension funds, the
victims are human. Mr. Bond's scheme affected the life savings
and financial security of thousands of working people, such as
police officers, fire fighters, teachers and bus drivers,' said
Valeri Caproni, director of the SEC's Pacific region based in
Los Angeles. The Pacific office developed the civil case filed in
Manhattan federal court.

Robert Spruill, 52, of Newark, N.J., formerly a broker with the
Manhattan brokerage firms of Brenner Securities and Lintz
Glover White & Co., and the Connecticut brokerage firm Value
Investing Partners, also was named as a defendant in the SEC's
civil case and in a separate criminal case.

The charges allege that between the middle of 1996 and late
1998, Bond used his discretionary control of his clients'
accounts to direct millions of dollars of the clients' brokerage
business to Lintz Glover and Value Investing Partners. Spruill
then allegedly caused a substantial portion of those commission
revenues to be unlawfully transferred to Bond.

These kickbacks were allegedly made through payments to
Bond's credit cards and bank accounts and were used to
support Bond's lavish lifestyle, prosecutors said.

It also was alleged that between late 1993 and the middle of
1996, Bond misused hundreds of thousands of dollars of ``soft
dollar' credits belonging to Procope's clients. Soft dollar credits
are partial rebates of commissions paid to brokerages for
executing purchases and sales of securities. Under the law,
investment advisors may use soft dollar credits generated from
trades for their clients to buy research information and services
benefitting their clients.

Bond allegedly diverted these credits to his own use by
submitting his own credit card bills and other personal and
business expenses to the Brenner brokerage and instructing it to
pay these expenses with the soft dollar credits paid for by
Procope clients.

-- posted by Kirk

Top 24. Dec 16, 1999 3:17 PM

» Kirk - If the charges proce True

I wonder if Uncle Lou will show Alan in prison clothing and a striped hat rather than a dunce cap?

-- posted by Kirk

Top 25. Dec 16, 1999 6:39 PM

» SteveT - Kirk

Innocent until proven guilty.

-- posted by SteveT

Top 26. Dec 17, 1999 7:08 PM

» Kirk - Bond, Alan Bond

Uncle Lou handled it well.

He addressed the issue on Wall$treet Week tonight. Louis R. said Alan Bond was a good friend of his and that it would be inappropriate (and mutualy agreed upon) for Mr. Bond to remain an elf or panelist until he was vindicated.

Class. Well done.

-- posted by Kirk

Top 27. Mar 11, 2000 11:42 AM

» Slick - Liz Ann Sonders

While Liz Ann has been one of the best market analysts of late , I have to question her sources after last night's airing. It seems one of her favorites going forward is
Exodus ( EXDS). http://biz.yahoo.com/p/e/exds.html

Hmm---It is also a fact , that one David Korn requested me to " keep and eye on " the same stock , several weeks ago during one of our chat sessions. Is it possible that Liz Ann is monitoring and getting some of her ( brilliant) ideas from our scheduled discourses?

Also , "her Ladyship ", Elaine Garzerelli, is the guest market monitor on Nightly Business Report next Friday. That always spurs interest from the general investment community, and also "the fanz of the Garz" club, of which there use to be a sizable amount that frequent this site.

Best Regards---Slick

-- posted by Slick