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May 01, 2008 at 04:00 AM
Research magazine got its start 30 years ago in the summer of 1978. At that time, Research was a quarterly so there is no exact corresponding anniversary month. In deciding how to mark this milestone, we decided to acknowledge the anniversary in May (through a few articles), but to reserve the hoopla for our June issue. In this issue, Patricia Abram, who got her start in the business three decades ago, offers a compelling personal retrospective; David Drucker looks at the evolution of advisor technology from the seventies till now; and senior editor Ken Silber reviews the market history of the sideways seventies in his Historical Research series.
Why so subdued in May? For one, we felt that the typical retrospective approach to big anniversaries can be a little self-indulgent and a tad boring. Sure, we have reason to congratulate ourselves on our great strides these past 30 years, but for most brokers who were in the business, 1978 is not a time they enjoy remembering. The Carter-era malaise saw stagflation, gas lines and a Dow mostly stuck in the 800s, though with a frightening swoon into the 500s.
Instead, sitting around a conference table in San Francisco, Peter Tucker, our resident design genius and art director, suggested we forgo the fog of seventies gloom in favor of a firm focus on the bright future still ahead. So stay tuned to these pages next month when 30 experts glimpse the next 30 years in this industry, which we hope to reveal in all its challenges and promise (as best anyone can tell, of course.)
The confluence of a difficult past and hopeful future seems especially appropriate at this uniquely transitional time. In response to ever-deepening credit woes, the Fed and Treasury have introduced a more intensive new regulatory scheme over Wall Street. This was inevitable after the government used billions of dollars of taxpayer money to ensure JP Morgan’s buyout of Bear Stearns. It’s hard to know how close we may have come to the Second Great Depression but for the Fed’s quick action. Perhaps that’s one of the questions we’ll have answered 30 years from now.
