European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 18, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine and fee Nobel Riz for wastes goes to  Stock Market crash 87 end of the new gatsby age1 by William Glaberson new York times Hen the closing Bell rang on ocl. 19, Al the end of the worst Day in the history of the now York Slock Exchange. A characteristically american Era came to an end it was a Lime when 29-year-Olds were earning six figure salaries on Wall Street. Multimillion Dollar companies were bought and sold like used cars. Everybody was doing  and stocks Sesmon to go Only up. Eight weeks alter the collapse people Are beginning to see that the live year Bull Market of the eighties was a new gatsby ago Complete with Tho materialism and euphoric excesses at All speculative eras. Like the jazz age of f Scott Fitzgerald s fictional Jay gatsby in the 1920s. The years combined Iho Romance of wealth and youth with the slightly sinister Aura of secret understandings and Cut Corners. People will be looking Tor a Point when perceptions  said John r Pelly. Chairman of Marine Midland Banks inc., who was an assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Ninon and Johnson administrations they la pick oct. 19 ii will be the Ever upward and Onward being replaced by Tough slogging and one loot in front of another " the historian Arthur m Schlesinger or. Said that in a symbolic sense the collapse crystallized people s discomfort with the unbridled Pursuit of  As they did in the jazz age. Schesinger said americans in the eighties lipped the balance they Are always adjusting Between altruism and selfishness in the eighties self incr Cal won. The financial world was the heart of the new age and there More than anywhere else oct. 19 left a painful legacy. At least Hall a dozen investigations including a presidential commissions Are grappling Wilh what happened to the Market that Day. It s the nearest thing to a meltdown that i Ever want 10  John j Phelan jr., chairman of the new York Stock Exchange observed at the close of trading on Black monday it is Clear that inc collapse will change the Money business profoundly. The crisis has already led to those developments a reappraisal of the country s Market system. Assertions Hal new technology is increasing investment risks More than anyone realized. Concerns about the interrelationship of global securities markets a Sharp debate Over a regulatory Structure thai some say tags far behind the world it was designed to control. It will be years before the country can measure inc full Impact of that dizzying Day and the Days 1hat followed. But some accounting can be made now it will be seen As the end of a period of Good wild limes and a return to  said John Brooks an author who has chronicled thu financial world for 30 years on Wall Street where the big salaries turned newly minted business school graduates into movers and shakers the world is suddenly an unforgiving place. Securities firms have let go 4.000 Pupols. And Many More Pink slips Are Likely to follow this week . Mutton was of petted to begin Tho first of some 5,000 dismissals expected As a result of its planned merger with Shearson Lehman Brothers. Beyond Wall and Broad streets the collapse left in its Wake a tangibly riskier financial system and a vulnerable Economy. It sobered Consumers and executives. For a time Al Lossl it taught a generation of investors that what goes up comes Down. People Don t remember that people can gel burned said the economist Charles p Kindleberger. The Stock Market s Rise Asil alien does mirrored and shaped the american mood takeover Ever spurred the Rise and Bull i vast new fortunes. Traders with inside tips made millions in the kinds of illicit schemes that historians say Are classic Marks of speculative periods. If there were big problems like the Federal Trade and budget deficits thai experts said threatened the Prosperity they seemed Distant the Market and the country in a sense broke away from the mundane economic details that usually govern their Progress. And in All the noise critics who said fundamental problems threatened the country s Tulare could hardly make their warnings head Friday december 1b, 1987 we be been through Quilo a Low years in which we Lel we had reached the millennium which was High rewards and no  said actor g Peterson. An investment banker who was Commerce Secretary in Iho Nixon administration. To Are now understand my thai thai is nol the  eras do no1 really end in a Day. They close in stages with the elements of one ago appearing in another Bui people remember dramatic events As the symbols of change. Long before the collapse the eighties were Rich with images that seemed Lobo competing Lor places in the Story Otano Lher roaring age. Early on critics said inc new Reagan administration set the tone. In the recession year of 1981, the year the government Cut social programs and broke a strike by air traffic controllers Black lie was Back in style Al the while House and new China was on order Lor $209,508. By 1984, Wilh the Economy energised in a time of deregulation and Wilh the Wall Street Bull already charging the spirit had become bipartisan. Someone coined a now word to describe Many of the affluent it somewhat soulless supporters of sen Gary Hart the Democrat who wanted to be president. They were yuppies Young Urban professionals and there were plenty of them. Time inc had a hit with a new Magazine that focused entirely on the one Ihms about which they seemed truly passionate Money after slow growth in Tho 1970s, the monthly spurted from 800,000 readers in 1980 to 1.85 million in 1987 Corporale raiders backed by High risk High yield Unk Bonds put the managers of Blue Chip companies on the defensive. Company Hunters like t. Boone Pickens Carl c. Icahn and Irwim l. Jacobs walked away As often As nol without their targets but Richer by Lens of millions of dollars. In one week in 1985. Half a dozen companies Worth a billion dollars or More were on the Block. In a iwo month period thai year. Icahn and Pickens separately Well Aller Phillips Petroleum Phillips remained Independent but Pickens made $90 million and Icahn Al least $50 million greed is All right by the Way the Best known of Iho takeover profiteers the Arbi Longcr Ivan f. Boesky told a group of business slide nos in 1985. I think greed is healthy you can be greedy and still Loel Good about  As it turned out Boesky was following his own advice. According to a Pica of guilty to criminal insider in adm charges by Marlin a. Sicgel the handsome Young investment banker who was Tho Conli Danl of lop executives. Boesky paid for Corporale secrets Wilh satchels full of Cash. The scandal raised questions about the ethics of the Lime. Bui the economics remained unchanged. Takeover lever kept going Strong in 1976 tha companies that changed hands had a total value of $20 billion. Last year that Ligure was $173 billion in the same decade american companies increased their Debl from $586 billion to $1 7 trillion. By this summer stocks were Selling at nearly double the average Price to earnings ratio Hal professionals say indicates they Ara Loo expensive. But Tho buying went on. Everybody was staying Tor one last drink said Louis Lowenstein a it Nance and Law professor Al Columbia University. Money manager who compete Over How much return i hey can squeeze out of investment dollars bought junk Bonds by the dozen. They tried exotic Slock Index futures and other novel financial instruments. Companies issued All kinds of securities with sophisticated names that few people understood historians will regard Tho crash of 87 As a signal of what has been in Tho last few years the disappearance of the productivity of America said the historian Barbara w. Tuchman.  said Martin Upton a makeover lawyer who is one of clip note America s lop advisers we will View this period As one in which we made a very important mistake what we dirt was divorce our financial system from reality we will in retrospect say How can we have been so Lupio " the Market will go up again takeovers will nol end. Young people will still make fortunes Bui none of it will seem so simple until the Neil time the stars and stripes Page 13