Louis Rukeyser

American financial journalist (1933–2006)

Louis Richard Rukeyser (January 30, 1933 – May 2, 2006) was an American financial journalist, columnist, and commentator, through print, radio, and television. He was the host of two television series, Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser, and Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street. He also published two financial newsletters, Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street and Louis Rukeyser's Mutual Funds. Named by People magazine as the only sex symbol of "the dismal science" of economics, Rukeyser won numerous awards and honors over his lifetime. Rukeyser was famous for his pun filled humor, and for advising investors to ignore short term gyrations of the market and think long term. In answering a letter on investing in a hairpiece manufacturer, he quipped that "if your money seems to be hair today and gone tomorrow, we'll try to make it grow back by giving the bald facts on how to get your investments toupée."

Rukeyser was born on January 30, 1933, in New York City, to a Jewish family, the second of four sons of financial journalist Merryle Stanley Rukeyser and Berenice Helene Rukeyser. He was the younger brother of Merryle S. "Bud", Jr. and older brother of William S. and Robert J. His ancestors came from England, Germany and Latvia, with his paternal great grandfather arriving in the United States about 1840. In 1950, he graduated from New Rochelle High School. He then attended Princeton University, where he graduated with an A. B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1954 after completing a senior thesis titled The Press and Senator McCarthy a Study of the Coverage of a Controversial Figure by Six New York Newspapers. While at Princeton, Rukeyser's roommate was Wayne Rogers, who would go on to star as 'Trapper John' McIntyre on the hit television series M*A*S*H and much later was a guest on Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser owing to Rogers' success as an investor. Rukeyser was also a member of the University Press Club.

From 1954 to 1965, Rukeyser worked as a political and foreign correspondent for The Baltimore Sun newspaper. In 1987, Wall Street Week was parodied in an episode of Saturday Night Live. Rukeyser was played by Jon Lovitz. In 1988, Rukeyser had a cameo appearance in the film Big Business starring Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin. He played the part of a business man attempting to climb into a cab when Sadie (played by Bette Midler) hits him with her bag and takes the cab. By the 1990s, Wall Street Week faced increasing competition from rivals like CNBC. In 2003, Rukeyser was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (a type of hematological malignancy). In 2004, the show was stopped at Rukeyser's request Rukeyser strongly disputed this analysis, but ten years later Professors Jess Beltz and Robert Jennings published another academic article in the Review of Financial Economics reporting results consistent with Pari's original findings, and that there was "little correlation between the 6 month performance of a recommendation and the abnormal volume at the date the recommendation is made." They observed that there were differences in return performance between the recommendations of different individuals, but the market could not discern the more insightful recommendations from the less insightful. Another commentator noted "It is mathematically impossible for the thirty million viewers of this show to beat the market, since they are the market."