to as low 3 percent by 1970. Leading economic indicators were
strong, especially in the first half of the decade. Money supply
was plentiful, which helped finance a rising stock market as well
as a hot IPO (Initial Public Offering) arena.
I listen today about stories of the Internet and how it will
change my life forever and that the world will never see another
period like this again. Perhaps this will turn out to be a true
statement, but I can assure you that I’ve seen it before. I have
to shrug my shoulders and laugh a little sometimes. I can’t help
but remember one night when my mother came home from work
where she was employed as a secretary. She told us about the
excitement in the office that day because a new machine had
arrived, and it seemed that it could make copies of documents
and memos simply by touching a button. Up until that time, if
management wanted a few extra copies of a report for distribution, those copies would have to be made by a secretary simply by repeating the task over and over again. Sometimes they
could use carbon paper if they were lucky to have a boss who
didn’t mind a little ink stain on the reports. It seemed, however,
now with this new-age gadget, no more carbon paper for that
woman. It was the 1960s and they were getting their new machine. She could not remember the name of the company that
made this awesome machine, but she thought its name started
with a letter X.
In those days it seemed like there were an abundance of
new opportunities opening up every week. They were going to
change our lives and in fact they did alter almost every facet
you can imagine. New “everything” was the order of the day.
There were concepts from fast food stores to color TVs, calculators, supermarkets, and even computers were being introduced
to the public. Up to then, these superbrains were only known
to us via badly made sci fi movies. I don’t believe that many
people realized how much this tool called a computer was about
to alter the landscape. It seemed like the sky was the limit and
all you needed was a concept and Wall Street was there to finance your dreams and help you go public with a new offering.
In 1961 and 1962 they reached a level of approximately
70 IPOs a month, and in 1968 and 1969 that level was increased
to more than 100 IPOs a month. This level was the record