Hullheaded on Wall Street
Some of you may have noticed that Wall Street seenis to be marching to a different drummer. While the countryÛªs economic forecasts have been very gloomy, the stock market has been soaringÛÓapparently unaware of any bad news from the nationÛªs business community.</br></br>The question most people are asking is, "What does Wall Street know that wo don't?" ItÛªs one that I took in my briefcase down to the Street the'other day.</br></br>I sought out Florio, who has a seat on the stock exchange. He was on the floor of the exchange waving his hands and nodding his head. I tugged on his shirt.</br></br>"I don't want to buy anything. All IÛªm trying to find out is why the economy is drowning and you people are driving stocks up.Û "Florio, donÛªt you read the papers? General Motors dropped over a billion dollars, Ford lost its shirt and Sears Roebuck is laying off its labor force. It has to affect what you invest in."</br></br>ÛÏWe donÛªt pay any attention to the business news. ItÛªs too depressing. The only way for us to survive on Wall Street is to talk to each other." "Who do you talk to?Û "Rembrecht. I roomed with him at Princeton. He knows a lot about the market because his grandmother was the first person in Trenton to buy IBM. I can learn more from Rembrecht than I can from the Wall Street Journal.Û