THE OLDEST STOCKBROKER IN THE WORLD
(2004) The oldest stockbroker in the world is 95 years old. He started off as an errand boy at the stock exchange in New York eight decades ago. Through 77 years on Wall Street he has survived bankruptcy, the invasion of Normandie, the rise and fall of the 80s, the dotcom death and bin Laden’s terror attacks.
by Eskil Johnsen and Henrik Pryser Libell.
New York, 2004.
Michael Pascuma Sr. started out as an errand boy at the American Stock Exchange in 1927. He still works there, and recently having turned 95, that earns him the unofficial title of the oldest stockbroker in the world.
- Not the oldest. The oldest active stockbroker in the world, corrects the small, healthy man with a somewhat oversized broker coat as he welcomes us at the American Stock Exchange. In spite of his age, Michael Pascuma is still working full time. He gets up at five every day, and in the winter, he starts the day off removing snow for his neighbour who is too old to do it himself, now that he has turned 70. Before seven o’clock the 95-year-old is ready on Wall Street, reading the financial news of the day in order to find out what’s worth buying and selling before the stock market opens.
- The stock market is my life, he explains. At the age of 95, saving money for old age is no longer the motivation for working.
– Now it’s the fun. The excitement.
The grand old of Wall Street
Pascuma has lived for a long time, and he has lived a lot. He fought on the beaches of Normandie on the D-Day in 1944. He went bankrupt at the end of a normal career, and started again from scratch at the age of 65. He experienced the internet revolution and the stock fund revolution. But the thing that marked him the most during all of these years is surviving his only son, who died in 9/11.
Stockbroker Michael Pascuma Senior has barely greeted us before he tells us of his greatest tragedy in a life which has lasted for almost a century.
- My son had breakfast in the south tower of World Trade Center on September 11th 2001. He always had breakfast there. He never got down before the second plane crashed, he says, and turns quiet.
After a minute he comes back to us, and we try getting an overview of a life encompassing several chapters of world history. Pascuma’s life and the history of the American Stock Exchange for the past 75 years walk hand in hand.
The best stock ever
- I won’t mention names, but the best stock I ever bought cost me three dollars, and I sold it at 45. I bought it for my kids, grandkids and good friends, and I was sure that stock would do well. It secured financially many of those closest to me for ever, he smiles. Spirit is needed in this business. Without it you’ll go under. A lot of people did go under around young Pascuma in the crash of 1929. Michael had already been working at Wall Street for two years. He was an errand boy, and was not particularly harmed by the crash. But the next ten years were not very nice for anyone.
- As long as you had a portfolio with a company, and a few stocks you owned yourself, you could buy and sell stocks without really having economic coverage for it. The most important thing was not being stuck with stocks at the end of the day, Pascuma explains. If you had gotten rid of them all, you could go home and sleep well. If you hadn’t, you had to put the money on the table two days later. Many of those who couldn’t pay chose to jump out of buildings. Those were sad times, remembers the world’s oldest active broker.
Staying young forever
The broker’s blue, half-open work coat is decorated with various pins; a heart of gold, one saying Western Silver Corporation. A stripy, brown tie peeks out under an old knitted waistcoat. In a business with an extreme pressure and a tremendously stressful environment, we wonder how it is possible to be pushing a hundred years.
- I will never stop doing this, says Pascuma, and rushes towards a computer screen to be updated on the latest rates. – You just type in like this, press here and read there, he explains. Simple and easy. Information technology is no problem. And he would love to show us around.
Mascot grandpa
A walk with Pascuma through the hall at the stock exchange reveals that most people there could be his grandchildren. Young men and women rush past us and greet our charismatic guide with happy looks.
"Hey grandpa", "What’s up, old man" Jokingly, but always with respect in their voices.
June Zino comes up to us and embraces the 94-year-old.
– He’s the best! she says. – And he’s an amazing dancer!
She disappears in the crowd, and leaves Michael standing with a huge grin. It’s not difficult to get up in the morning with this kind of job to go to.
Cobbler from Italy
Perhaps is it the American dream himself we are sitting here talking to. Michael Pascumas fathers arrived at New York Port authority terminal in 1902 with a wave of immigrants from Florence. He settled down as a cobbler, and was a real estate agent on the side.
- My father was a smart man, Pascuma says proudly, and he got his son a job as an errand boy on Wall Street in 1929. Michael worked his way up, and in 1936, he became a member of the stock exchange. But times were still tough, and he worked for 25 dollars a week, mainly to afford food on the table.
Party or fiasco
- The stock exchange is either a party or a fiasco. It has always been like that, Michael tells us. He searches through his pockets, and pulls out a pile of papers, held together by a large paper clip. Through his big glasses he checks figures and flicks the pages back and forth.
- Here: July 19th 2002 was the busiest day I’ve experienced. We had a turnover record. Not even a second was calm.
His little messy pile of papers is a financial encyclopaedia of the ups and downs on Wall Street for the past 70 years. All in the pocket of this old man.
D-day in Normandie
In 1943, 34 year-old Pascuma is sent off to South Carolina on boot camp. The following year, he is sent to Europe to fight. On the 6th of June 1944 Pascuma is flown into France. He speaks more slowly now. The memories are strong. He leans towards us, and introduces us to basic military tactics.
– The air artillery is meant to bomb the enemy to an extent that allows the infantries to surprise them on land.
This day, however, precision was faulty, and private Pascuma suddenly found himself in a bomb rain that left him unconscious in hospital in the field for six days. – Thanks to God, I’m still alive.
Back on Wall Street
Back in the States, Pascuma returned to the stock exchange, which got better in the post-war years. The 60s were particularly prosperous. Michael was broking for the company Heller and Levinson, and as Levinson died during the depression of the 30s, Heller was the boss. He made sure Pascuma got to climb up the career ladder. Times were good, but after sun comes rain, and when Heller died in 1973, he left two unsatisfied partners to watch a business going under. Pascuma had to buy out the partners, paying them 100 000 dollars, and was completely bankrupt. The company too was close to financial disaster, and when most other 65-year-olds prepare for retirement, Pascuma had to start from scratch. But with a good client portfolio and hard work, the company managed to stay strong. The rise and fall of the 80s is merely a historical parenthesis to Michael: - Those youngsters thought things lasted forever!
Pascuma himself lost little or nothing on neither the dotcom death nor the crash of 87.
Lost his son in 9/11
Father Michael Pascuma Sr. let his son michael Pascuma Jr. join him on the team in 1975, simply by buying him a seat at the stock exchange. Back then, the price of a seat was about 30 000 dollars.
- My son helped me with everything. He was my blessing, sighs Pascuma Sr. as he remembers his worst loss. It all ended on September 11th 2001, the day New York will never forget, not even in a hundred years. Michael Pascuma Jr left three children and a wife. By the memorial put up as a tribute to him and the other 9/11 victims of the American Stock Exchange we end our walk with grandfather Pascuma, mascot of the stock exchange. We bid the 95-year-old Michael Pascuma farewell, as he rushes up the stairs back to the hectic life of Wall Street.
- You have to come back in 2009, he shouts. I'll be a 100 years old then!
På trykk i Dagens Næringsliv Magasinet 2004, Politiken 2005.
