Banker Rudolph Peterson on perpetual prosperity (1966)

Businessmen are concerned about the future, but they are also remarkably confident. Among the most confident is Banker Peterson, who believes that with intelligent and courageous policy actions, men can make prosperity perpetual, create great societies at home and grand designs abroad. In the next five years, he observes, the number of U.S. families will grow by 5,000,000, or 10%, providing a tremendous expansive force and placing many new demands upon the nation's banks and businesses. "The next big thrust in the economy," he says, "will come from urban development — new concepts of housing, transportation, pollution control. All these things are sitting on the shelf, ready to go, and when the war in Viet Nam ends, domestic development will move fast." America's economy need never run down, because, says Rudy Peterson, "there are so many things that need to be done."

~ Time, "The Year of Tight Money and Where It Will Lead," December 30, 1966

(Rudolph Peterson is president of California's Bank of America.)

John Bogle on the Go-Go Sixties

Q: What was your biggest mistake?  

Bogle: When I was 38, I became head of Wellington Management, and I did an extremely unwise merger.  I got wrapped up in the excitement of the go-go era, and the go-go era ended.  As a result of that stupid decision, I got fired.  The great thing about that mistake, which was shameful and inexcusable and a reflection of immaturity and confidence beyond what the facts justified, was that I learned a lot.  And if I had not been fired then, there would not have been a Vanguard. 

~ John Bogle, "Questions For John Bogle," Fortune, December 24, 2007