My friend Ronnie Pankau (PAN) passed away. You might have known him as a board member at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He did that from 2011-2020. Pardon me for being a bit misty-eyed and reminiscent…..
We traded Eurodollars together with about 2000 other people crammed into a pit the size of a tennis court. I never stood near him, but occasionally would trade with him. Ronnie was in the front month. When I started I was back by his brother Brett (BPX). Ronnie and I thought alike politically. He was as conservative as I was.
We worked on the CME political action committee together. Sometimes we fought like cats and dogs over where each part of the Eurodollar contract should be traded. We sometimes disagreed over CME politics. We agreed on a lot of stuff. We’d end it with a beer and a laugh.
We remained friends through it all.
The CME was a place where you were known more for your badge than by your name. PAN was older than me. He was a very good trader. His wife was a wonderful person and they loved horses.
Ron was always calm. He was always organized. I never saw him sweat. He always had a smile on his face and always was ready with a laugh or a joke. I didn’t know anyone that didn’t like him.
One of my favorite stories with Ronnie was when we were in Washington DC. Every year, we would go there in May and have a big party inviting a lot of Congresspeople, their staff, lobbyists, and other adjacent parties that worked for the commodity industry. It was a lot of fun and we got to interact closely with Congresspeople and let them know the mundane stuff they were voting on meant something to real people and businesses.
We would have a real good turnout for this party. 25-50 senators, 100 congresspeople, or more. It was held in the House Agriculture Committee Room which had a massive beautiful outdoor patio overlooking the Capitol. The first time I ever went to this party it dawned on me that the initial power in the US was really with the agricultural sector. It remained that way for over 100 years. Still to this day, the Ag Lobby has very powerful friends on both sides of the aisle that won’t agree on anything except Ag policy.
Many of us would bring our wives. Sometimes we’d bring our kids. Congresspeople loved taking photos with kids. This party was the highlight of the spring Congressional party season. I have been told that by more than one Washington person.
We’d have the best food. We had top-shelf liquor and spent a lot of money to get high-quality wine. I went to the Napa Valley Vintners party once and ours put theirs to shame. My friend Ned who you will meet below took me once for a hot minute.
The House Ag Committee room gets the very best real estate in Washington DC. It’s very ornate and dignified.
This particular year was 1992. If you know what was going on in 1991-92, the Bulls were making a run at the NBA championship. We all wanted to see the game. Ronnie found a bar near the Longworth Office building. As soon as the party was dying down, we hightailed it to the bar to watch the game.
We brought a bunch of people with us. Most importantly, we brought a lot of Congressman Dan Rostenkowski’s staff. “Rosty” was powerful. That’s an understatement. Northwest Side of Chicago, he knew what the commodity exchanges meant to Illinois and the nation. He ran the Ways and Means Committee in the House and had been in DC for years.
Chicago might have a diverse economy, but take away the financial exchanges and it would be a ghost town. Even today, the grease that makes the city run comes from the financial exchanges and all the firms associated with it, even though the open outcry dinosaurs aren’t walking around the Loop anymore.
Not only that, but we represented a fair amount of the gross profit at bars, restaurants, and divorce attorneys.
When an adverse policy was being proposed, we knew Rosty would save our asses. Unlike Democrats of today, Rosty was a “business Democrat”. You could make a deal with him and he’d stand by it. He was of the Chicago Machine for sure. But, he’d reach across the aisle, compromise, and make things happen.
From Wikipedia:
In Washington, D.C., he rose by virtue of seniority to the rank of Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in 1981, just as the Reagan Revolution marginalized many other Democratic politicians. As Chairman of Ways and Means, he played a critical role in formulating tax policy during the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan, including the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which cut the top federal bracket to 50%, and the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which further lowered it to 28% and reduced the number of brackets to only two. He was also involved in trade policy, as well as reforms of the welfare system, health care and Social Security programs.
Rostenkowski closed legislative deals between the toughest power brokers in the U.S., from union chiefs to corporate titans to the president himself. The book Chicago and the American Century credited Rostenkowski with securing billions of dollars for projects in Chicago and throughout Illinois. Overall, it is projected that Rostenkowski brought $5 million to the city of Chicago. The book named him the sixth most significant politician to come from Chicago in the twentieth century
This Bulls game bar outing wasn’t just a casual beer. It was business and Ron set it all up. It was time for some schmoozing and rapport-building.
The Bulls played magnificently. We drank quite a bit of beer. At the end of the night, it was time to settle up. They brought Ronnie the bill. One of Rosty’s people said, “We will split this with you.”
Ronnie looked right at him and said, “No chance. You guys do so much for us here we got this.”
Perfect. The wealthy traders from Chicago would get the check which was just about ten ticks for us. We had a great time with people that were on our side, and created some good karma.
Then, a member of the CME Board who will remain unnamed tried to make a joke.
“You could pay us in postage stamps.”
Have you ever been in a place where a bomb went off? At the time, Rosty was under investigation for the postage stamp scandal that would end his political career.
You could cut the tension with a knife. I didn’t know what to say and kept my mouth shut. Ronnie’s eyes shot daggers at the CME Board member. No one knew quite what to say. The silence was deafening.
A guy with a New York Mets baseball cap on said, “We could just write you a House bank check.” There was another scandal going on at the same time which was the House Check Kiting Scandal. The guy with the hat became a very good friend of mine, Ned Mihalek. At the time, he was Chief of Staff for a Democratic Congressman in Des Moines. He grew up in NY. Ned was a lot like the Rosty people. He was a Democrat but more centrist. He’d be considered a conservative Democrat today with the hard leftward shift of the party.
We laughed really hard and the CME guys picked up the bill. We made the Board Member kick in the most. He deserved it. Then we went to another bar and shot down some bourbon….whew. Do you know the relief you feel when you dodged a bullet?
One of the things I really regret about the trading floors closing is not seeing friends like Ron every day. I see them on Facebook or Twitter now but it is not anywhere near the same. Some of us chat on the phone or text from time to time but it’s not anywhere near the same.
I loved trading. One of the aspects of it was the social. 90% of the time, we were bored. That’s when you got to know people.
We were all supposed to grow old together in the pits. We were supposed to sport trade in our older age and chat about each other’s wives, kids, grandkids, and stuff. I feel like we all got ripped off in some way.
I am not alone when I say today there are a lot of people sad about Ron passing away. We all are going to miss you.
A great article... Those were the days and Ron loved every minute there. 💝
What a great story. Sounds like a great guy. You may have a book in you, friend.