The Weekend Interview with Charles Schwab: Talking to Chuck
San Francisco -- Perhaps no one on the globe has come to symbolize the rise of the investor class in America in recent decades more than Charles Schwab.</br></br>When Mr. Schwab, or "Chuck," as nearly everyone calls him, opened his first brokerage office in 1971, the stock market was pretty much the exclusive sandbox of the richest 5-10% of Americans. Today, thanks in no small part to his company's financial market innovations, investing has been thoroughly "democratized," as he puts it, with more than half of working class adults now owners of stock.</br></br>Creating wealth is what Mr. Schwab has come to regard as his "life's pursuit." He's accomplished that not just for himself -- his stake in the company is estimated at $4 billion -- but also for the millions of small investors who first came to be owner-capitalists by opening a Schwab account. So who better to discuss the future of financial markets and investing than the man who revolutionized the brokerage business?</br></br>I visited Mr. Schwab recently at the firm's headquarters in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Mr. Schwab is astonishingly muscular and fit for a grandfather who turns 70 this weekend. Throughout our conversation -- which took place in his 30th-floor office overlooking the Bay -- he is cordial but intense. He speaks of the company as if it is one of his children, and he doesn't seem to be in any hurry to surrender the helm.</br></br>I ask him what he means by his favorite term, "democratic capitalism." He replies that the stock market today is "an open tent for anybody to come into." Ever the salesman, he adds: "For as little as a thousand dollars, you can open an account at Schwab. I mean, it's not a big barrier to entry."