All the shrieking over the recent events on the New York Stock Exchange over the trading in GameStop Corp. may be the best indication of the 21st century. By that, I mean the generations that have come of age in the past 20 years or so. I am an expert. I have four sons, all Millennials or younger.
“Official” age designations are as follows: Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, currently 57 to 75 years old. Gen X were born between 1965 and 1980 and currently from 41-56 years old. Gen Y/Millennials were born between 1981 and 1997. Gen Z were born between 1998 and 2015.
Let’s put things in perspective. Neil A. Armstrong and Michael Collins landed on the moon on July 20, 1969 at 20:17 UTC. The first “Fake moon landing” pamphlet was published on July 20, 1969 at 22:17 UTC.
The global gold standard for currency ended on Sunday, August 15, 1971, when the American financial markets were closed. US President Richard Nixon gave a televised speech to the world saying, “I have directed Treasury Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Now crude oil will be the currency standard and if you don’t like it, Bite Me!”
I added the last sentence because that was what Nixon was effectively saying.
The original Apple Computer, Apple I, was released in 1976. It cost $3,000 in today’s money and was famous for drawing all kinds of incredible moving green-line shapes, perfect for watching while stoned on marijuana.
The first BBS, Computerized Bulletin Board System, was created in 1978. You could talk to as many people on-line as you had telephone landlines. This was the forerunner of sexting, computer dating, and PornTube. The World Wide Web was first available to the public in 1993. In January 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone.
And all that is what gives us Boomers a huge advantage. We have historical perspective. We lived all of that. The Gen X people might have seen an “Apple I” computer being used by a Boomer.
In the past two weeks we have been watching the stock market trading of a company called GameStop, which traces its root to Babbage’s, a software retailer, founded in 1984 by Gary M. Kusin, born in 1951. Go Boomer. The newly appointed Chief Executive Officer is George E. Sherman. Go Boomer2.
Last week from the hallowed halls of the US Congress to Twitter Philippines we have heard the following: “No more stock market talk on Reddit. Shut it down.” “A fine or imprisonment for ‘stock advice’ unless you have a license.” “Social media will kill the stock market.”
When I was trading on Wall Street 45 years ago, we had this incredible invention called “The Telephone.” With it, stockbrokers were able to do amazing things like “short stocks.” Also to “Short squeeze” the shorters. Prices were able to be manipulated and “insider trading” was done. Brokers got together to hype basura issues. And do you honestly think that you invented “pump and dump”?
Michael Meehan was born in England in 1892. He was a Wall Street messenger boy who sidelined selling tickets to Broadway shows. Because of the connections he made, he eventually bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1925. M.J. Meehan & Company employed 400 people in nine offices.
In 1937 Meehan was the first person to be expelled from the NYSE, ending his career as a broker. He made $5.6 million (2021 equivalent) pumping and dumping the shares of Bellanca Aircraft in 1935. He used “The Telephone.”
E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.