Writer, researcher and seasoned socionomist led a walking tour of America’s social mood epicenter
Peter Kendall is co-editor of the monthly Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, where he provides analysis of the US markets and comments on cultural trends. He’s researched a variety of fascinating topics related to social mood and popular culture, from the popularity of basketball and star players, to fashion trends and skirt lengths, to the acceptance of transgenderism.
Peter led a one-time-only walking tour of Wall Street and Lower Manhattan on September 8 that placed the financial and commercial capital of the world within the context of 200 years of stock market history.
Before the tour, Peter sat down with Socionomics Institute staff to discuss his background in socionomics, where he got the idea for the tour, and what interested him most about the event. You can click the play button to watch the conversation, or read a transcript below.
Socionomics Institute: How did you first learn about socionomics?
Kendall: It was about 1982 or 1983, and really at that time it wasn’t socionomics. It was a series of observations by Robert Prechter that took his stock market analysis–which was based on the Wave Principle–and applied it more broadly to the social milieu. In 1985 he put together a special report, “Pop Culture and the Stock Market,” which came out in August of 1985. That really grabbed my attention. It also appeared in Barron’s, so it got a lot of play.
Socionomics Institute: Where did you get the idea for a walking tour of Wall Street?
Kendall: Well actually that occurred to me when I was with my daughter’s high school class. We were at the Federal Building, and I noticed that the building itself had actually cracked when 9/11 occurred. At the time, they were investing again in the building to repair it; it was a multimillion dollar renovation project. I realized sometime around then that the building was actually built during the first Supercycle wave in 1835 through 1842, so at the end of the bull market and well into the bear, much like the Empire State Building in 1929.
Socionomics Institute: Can you give us a teaser of what the tour will entail?
Kendall: Most centrally, we’ll be talking about the skyscraper indicator, which is the observation made back in about 1942 — really it was in the 30s that this was noticed. There were articles written about the skyscrapers that had the same sort of look as the stock market, and people just made the analogy. And then it was formally made by Edward Dewey in his book on stock market cycles. At the time it was kind of inspired by the big cycle that everyone had just gone through from 1929 through the Depression. There aren’t a lot of buildings built deep in bear markets; it actually just stops. And it’s very stark, because in many cases, they’re actually just finishing the buildings that were designed and built through the peak – most famously the Empire State Building, which was one of three of the world’s tallest skyscrapers that was built at the end of the bull market in 1929.
Socionomics Institute: Why did you choose to do a tour of New York City in particular?
Kendall: I think there’s a lot of different reasons why. New York is the epicenter of capitalism. I would say that’s a big part of it. It has a way of just kind of clearing out the old to make way for the new. It has this history of progressing very dramatically along the lines of bull and bear markets.
Socionomics Institute: What are you most looking forward to about the tour?
Kendall: Many times I’ve put the tour off because it seemed like too big of a project, but when I go, I always find something new and different that I hadn’t seen before. To put it all together, to see how it plays out in the brick and mortar – I think it’s going to be powerful.
Missed the tour? Sign up for free weekly email updates to learn how you can access any tour-related content we release in the future.