Coordinates	42°17′17″N18°50′33″N
{{infobox company |company name	Bloomberg L.P. |company_logo |company_type Limited Partnership |foundation October 1, 1981 |founder Michael Bloomberg Thomas Secunda |location Bloomberg TowerNew York City, U.S. |locations 200 offices (June 2010) |key_people Peter Grauer, Chairman Dan Doctoroff, President |industry Financial Services |revenue US$6.9 billion (projected (2010) |num_employees 13,000 (Dec 2010) |homepage }}

Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P. was founded by Michael Bloomberg (current Mayor of New York City) with the help of Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, and Charles Zegar in 1981 and a 30% ownership investment by Merrill Lynch. The company provides financial software tools such as analytics and equity trading platform, data services and news to financial companies and organizations around the world through the Bloomberg Terminal (via its Bloomberg Professional Service), its core money-generating product. Many customers use only a small fraction of the machines' 30,146 functions. Bloomberg L.P. has grown to include a global news service, including television, radio, the Internet and printed publications.

Its current headquarters are located at the Bloomberg Tower, 731 Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building is also known as One Beacon Court for the lighted rectangular beacon that caps the tower and the paved courtyard at the ground level.

It was formed as a Delaware Limited Partnership in 1981 and has been in business since 1983. Michael Bloomberg owns 85% of the group. Bloomberg's core business is leasing terminals to subscribers. It also runs Bloomberg Television, a financial TV station, and a business radio station WBBR in New York City at a loss. Bloomberg's revenue for last year (2009) was estimated at $6.25 billion. Based on that estimate, the new projections would push revenue to nearly $6.9 billion this year (2010). There are currently over 300,000 Bloomberg Terminal subscribers worldwide.Its competitors include SNL Financial, Thomson Reuters, Capital IQ, Dow Jones Newswires, FactSet Research Systems and smaller companies such as New York Financial Press. In late 1996 Bloomberg bought back one-third of Merrill Lynch's 30 percent stake in his company for $200 million valuing the company at $2.0 billion. In July 2008, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell its 20% stake in the firm back to Bloomberg, for a reported $4.43 billion, valuing the firm at approximately $22.5 billion.

History, services and products

In 1981 Salomon Brothers was acquired, and Michael Bloomberg, a general partner, was given a $10 million partnership settlement. Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. In 1982, Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer, installing 22 Market Master terminals and investing $30 million in the company. In 1986, the company was renamed Bloomberg L.P. and by 1988, 5000 terminals had been installed. Within a few years, ancillary products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), the Bloomberg Messaging Service, and the Bloomberg newswire were launched.

In addition to its financial services offerings, Bloomberg launched its news services division in 1990. Bloomberg News (originally known as Bloomberg Business News) has over 2,000 employees and 145 bureaus around the world, producing more than 5,000 stories daily. It now provides information to approximately 350 newspapers and magazines worldwide, including ''The Economist'', ''The New York Times'' and ''USA Today''.

To run for the position of Mayor of New York against Democrat Mark Green in 2001, Mike Bloomberg gave up his position of CEO at Bloomberg and appointed Lex Fenwick as CEO in his stead. Daniel Doctoroff, former deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration, now serves as president. Peter Grauer is the chairman.

In September 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 80 female employees, who argue Bloomberg L.P. engaged in a pattern of discrimination against pregnant women who took maternity leave. The suit alleges that 'Michael Bloomberg is responsible for the creation of the systemic, top-down culture of discrimination' at the company. A Bloomberg L.P. spokeswoman said: 'We are confident that once all the facts come out they will demonstrate that the claims have no merit.'

Bloomberg News was the subject of an investigative feature by Vanity Fair in December 2008.

In 2009, Bloomberg acquired Businessweek, a consumer oriented business magazine and Web property, from McGraw-Hill; and New Energy Finance, now called Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a data company focused on energy investment and carbon markets research based in the U.K. The same year, The New York Times covered Bloomberg's growth and aspirations in a full-length media section feature.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance is a specialist provider of financial information and research to the renewable energy technology sector and its investors worldwide.

Corporate governance

As of July 2010, members of the board of directors of Bloomberg include: Peter Grauer, Daniel Doctoroff, Thomas Secunda, Arthur Levitt, Jane Bryant Quinn, Frank Savage, Richard DeScherer and Hugh Lowenstein.

Litigation against Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System

Bloomberg L.P. News brought a lawsuit against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to force the Board to reveal the identities of firms for which it has provided guarantees. Bloomberg, L.P. won at the trial court level. On August 24, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals refused to revisit a request by the Fed to review an earlier Court of Appeals decision requiring the agency to release the records. On August 27, 2010, the court agreed to delay implementation of the ruling until Oct. 19 so that the Fed may appeal to the Supreme Court. the Fed has indicated it will do so.

See also

A. M. Best

Bloomberg Markets

Bloomberg Terminal

Dominion Bond Rating Service

Fitch Ratings

Markit Group

Morningstar, Inc.

Moody's

Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations

Standard & Poor's

Notes

External links

Bloomberg: Overview

PND News – New York City Mayor Gave $130 Million to Charity in 2002

Bloomberg LP v. Triple E Holdings Limited (2002) GENDND 1665 (13 December 2002)

The Vault, containing a company overview

Fortune Magazine: Bloomberg LP is a prodigious success

Vanity Fair: Bloomberg Without Bloomberg

Category:Companies based in New York City Category:News agencies based in the United States Category:Financial news agencies Category:Media companies of the United States Category:Privately held companies based in New York

cs:Bloomberg da:Bloomberg LP de:Bloomberg L.P. es:Bloomberg L.P. fr:Bloomberg LP ko:블룸버그 L.P. it:Bloomberg (azienda) lt:Bloomberg ms:Bloomberg L.P. nl:Bloomberg L.P. ja:ブルームバーグ (企業) no:Bloomberg LP pl:Bloomberg L.P. pt:Bloomberg ro:Bloomberg ru:Bloomberg sv:Bloomberg L.P. zh:彭博新聞社

Coordinates	42°17′17″N18°50′33″N
Name	Paul Bremer
Office	Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq
Primeminister	Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum (Acting)Ibrahim al-JaafariAhmed ChalabiAyad AllawiJalal TalabaniAbdul Aziz al-HakimAdnan PachachiMohsen Abdel HamidMohammad Bahr al-UlloumMassoud BarzaniEzzedine SalimGhazi Mashal Ajil al-YawerAyad Allawi
Term start	May 12, 2003
Term end	June 28, 2004
Predecessor	Jay Garner
Successor	Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer (Acting President)
Ambassador from2	United States
Country2	the Netherlands
President2	Ronald Reagan
Term start2	August 31, 1983
Term end2	August 25, 1986
Predecessor2	William J. Dyess
Successor2	John Shad
Birth date	September 30, 1941
Birth place	Hartford, United States
Spouse	Frances Winfield
Children	2
Party	Republican
Profession	Diplomat
Religion	Roman CatholicismEpiscopalian (Formerly)
Alma mater	Yale UniversityHarvard UniversitySciences Po }}

Lewis Paul "Jerry" Bremer III (born September 30, 1941) is an American diplomat. He is most notable for being the U.S. Administrator to Iraq charged with overseeing the country's occupation after the 2003 invasion. In his role as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, he reported primarily to the U.S. Secretary of Defense and exercised authority over Iraq's civil administration. He served in this capacity from May 11, 2003, until limited Iraqi sovereignty was restored on June 28, 2004.

Early life and career

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Bremer was educated at New Canaan Country School, Kent School and Phillips Academy. Bremer's father was president of the Christian Dior Perfumes Corporation in New York. His mother was a lecturer in art history at the University of Bridgeport. Bremer graduated from Yale University in 1963 and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard University in 1966. He later continued his education at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, where he earned a Certificate of Political Studies (CEP).

That same year he joined the Foreign Service, which sent him first to Kabul, Afghanistan, as a general services officer. He was assigned to Blantyre, Malawi, as economic and commercial officer from 1968 to 1971.

During the 1970s, Bremer held various domestic posts with the State Department, including posts as an assistant to Henry Kissinger from 1972–76. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Oslo, Norway from 1976–79, returning to the US to take a post of Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department of State, where he remained from 1979–81. In 1981, he was promoted to Executive Secretary and Special Assistant to Alexander Haig.

Ronald Reagan appointed Bremer as Ambassador to the Netherlands in 1983 and Ambassador-at-Large for Counterterrorism in 1986 (and Coordinator for Counterterrorism). Bremer retired from the Foreign Service in 1989 and became managing director at Kissinger and Associates, a worldwide consulting firm founded by Henry Kissinger. A Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, Bremer received the State Department Superior Honor Award, two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards, and the Distinguished Honor Award from the Secretary of State. Before rejoining government in 2003, he was Chairman and CEO of Marsh Crisis Consulting, a risk and insurance services firm which is a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., a trustee on the Economic Club of New York, and a board member of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Akzo Nobel NV, the Harvard Business School Club of New York and The Netherlands-America Foundation. He served on the International Advisory Boards of Komatsu Corporation and Chugai Pharmaceuticals.

Bremer was appointed Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism by House Speaker Dennis Hastert in 1999. He also served on the National Academy of Science Commission examining the role of Science and Technology in counterterrorism. Bremer and his wife were the founders of the Lincoln/Douglass Scholarship Foundation, a Washington-based not-for-profit organization that provides high school scholarships to inner city youths.

On the day Al-Qaeda terrorists crashed two hijacked American commercial jetliners into the World Trade Center in New York City, Bremer and 1,700 of his employees at Marsh & McLennan had offices in both towers. Bremer's office was in the North Tower. He and his people occupied floors at and "above where the second aircraft hit." At the time of his television interview with CNN on September 14, 2001, 450 of his colleagues were unaccounted for; 295 were eventually counted as dead.

Three hours after a commercial airliner crashed into the South Tower, Bremer appeared for a televised interview. As a leading counterterrorism expert, Bremer offered his opinion on what would likely happen and pinpointed Osama bin Laden as the terrorist leader responsible for the attack.

In late 2001, along with former Attorney General Edwin Meese, Bremer co-chaired the Heritage Foundation's Homeland Security Task Force, which created a blueprint for the White House's Department of Homeland Security. For two decades Bremer has been a regular at Congressional hearings and is recognized as an expert on terrorism and internal security. Some of Bremer's published work includes "Warfare & Defence Military Science Alliance Response to Nuclear Weapons Proliferation", "The Alliance Response to Nuclear Weapons Proliferation: Deterrence, Defense, and Cooperative Options", and "Countering the Changing Threat of International Terrorism: Report from the National Commission on Terrorism", the ''New York Times'' article "What I Really Said About Iraq", and his first book, ''My Year In Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope''.

Governor of Iraq

Bremer arrived in Iraq as the U.S. Presidential Envoy on May 2003, and on May 11 replaced lieutenant general Jay Garner as Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. In June, the Office was transformed into the Coalition Provisional Authority, and Bremer, as U.S. Administrator of Iraq, became the chief executive authority in the country.

As the top civil administrator of the former Coalition Provisional Authority, Bremer was tasked with the challenging job of overseeing the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq until the country was deemed to be in a state in which it could be self-governed. He was empowered to issue decrees to modify Iraq's infrastructure, including such notable decrees as removing all restrictions on freedom of assembly, suspending the use of the death penalty, upholding Saddam Hussein's union laws, establishing a Central Criminal Court of Iraq and disbanding the Iraqi army.

On July 13, 2003, Bremer approved the creation of an Iraqi Interim Governing Council as a way of "ensuring that the Iraqi people's interests are represented." The council members were chosen from prominent political, ethnic, and religious leaders who had opposed Saddam Hussein. Bremer retained veto power over the council's proposals. The council was authorized to select a limited number of delegates to key Coalition Provisional Authority committees, like the Program Review Board.

The other major milestone was the development and approval of an interim constitution. On March 1, 2004, after several hours of negotiations, with Bremer acting as mediator, the Iraqi Interim Governing Council resolved the disagreements the council members had with clauses in the interim constitution. A formal signing ceremony was scheduled for March 5, 2004. As the guests waited and the orchestra played, the signing was canceled due to objections by certain Shia members in the council, most notably by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a prominent religious leader in Iraq. The official signing finally took place on March 8, 2004.

On June 28, 2004 at 10:26 AM local time, the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority formally transferred limited sovereignty of Iraqi territory to the Iraqi Interim Government, two days ahead of schedule. Bremer departed from the country on the same day. In his farewell speech broadcast on Iraqi television, he said, "I leave Iraq gladdened by what has been accomplished and confident that your future is full of hope. A piece of my heart will always remain here in the beautiful land between the two rivers, with its fertile valleys, its majestic mountains and its wonderful people..."

Bremer's office was a division of the United States Department of Defense, and as Administrator he reported directly to the United States Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States. His senior adviser Dan Senor served as coalition spokesman, working with military spokesman Mark Kimmitt.

John Negroponte replaced Bremer as the highest ranking American civilian in Iraq.

Post-Iraq

Since his return from Iraq, Bremer has been on a few speaking tours. During one engagement on October 4, 2004 at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, he remarked that lawlessness in Iraq might have been under better control by having more troops on the ground earlier on. Occurring only a month before the 2004 presidential elections, the remarks resulted in controversy. Bremer clarified his views October 8 in an article in ''The New York Times''.

On December 14, 2004, Bremer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civil award for "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." "He was also presented with the Department of Defense award for Distinguished Public Service and the Nixon Library honored him with the "Victory of Freedom Award" for "demonstrating leadership and working towards peace and freedom."

Bremer made several public appearances in 2005 and continues to make public appearances. Bremer was a keynote speaker at a San Diego conference in February 2005.

He is also a guest speaker at several universities throughout the United States. One such visit to Clark University on April 18, 2005 attracted several protesters who displayed anti-Bremer signs and hung him in effigy. Dissatisfied with Bremer's speech and answers, several students also voiced disappointment at their university for having paid him $40,000 to appear. Another appearance, scheduled for the public library of his hometown, New Canaan, Connecticut, on January 18, 2006, was moved to the private St. Luke's School in the same town for fear for protests. During a February 27, 2006 public appearance at Lynchburg College, where his sister-in-law is an assistant dean, Bremer insisted that his decision to disband the Iraqi military was the correct one.

Bremer also wrote a book about his experiences in Iraq, published January 2006. In a Dateline NBC interview broadcast on television on January 8, 2006, Bremer said that the job was more difficult than he originally anticipated. According to the ''Financial Times Online'', he was used as the Iraq "fall guy" for "postwar setbacks".

Among other things, Bremer repeatedly asserted that when he came to Iraq, the Iraqi army had abandoned its barracks, and therefore "there was no army to disband". He also repeatedly defended his decision to expel Baath Party members from government posts by comparing Saddam Hussein with Adolf Hitler.

Bremer has even made an appearance on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show'' with Jon Stewart. The two joked about their mutual attraction for each other, but the discussion changed course to the topic of Bremer's book.

Bremer has also made one invitation-only, guest appearance in Columbia, South Carolina in March 2006 as guest speaker for a charitable event sponsored by the Lexington Medical Center.

On February 6, 2007, Bremer appeared before a Congressional committee investigating fraud and abuse and was questioned about what happened during his tenure as head of the CPA and to respond to conclusions from a January 2005 audit report, including the missing $8.8 billion U.S. of Iraq's money and the chosen accounting method of these funds.

Bremer currently serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board for GlobalSecure Corporation, a company whose focus is "on securing the homeland with integrated products and services for the critical incident response community worldwide,". and on the board of directors of BlastGard International, Inc., a company located in Florida that manufactures materials to mitigate the impact of explosions. (Standard and Poor's Register)

Bremer and wife Frances, the spokeswoman for the National Fibromyalgia Association, travel around the country to help raise public awareness about fibromyalgia, a medical condition that some claim afflicts 10 million Americans and five percent of the world's population. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Republican Institute.

Criticism and controversies

Disbanding of the Iraqi Army

On May 23, 2003 Bremer issued ''Order Number 2'', in effect dissolving the entire former Iraqi army and putting 400,000 former Iraqi soldiers out of work.

The move was widely criticized for creating a large pool of armed and disgruntled youths for the insurgency to draw recruits from. Former soldiers took to the streets in mass protests to demand back pay. Many of them threatened violence if their demands were not met.

It was widely asserted within the White House and the CPA that the order to disband the Iraqi Army had little to no practical effect since it had "self-demobilized" in the face of the oncoming invasion force. This was revealed to be false, however, insofar as the CIA had conducted psychological operations against the Iraqis, such as dropping leaflets over the Army's positions prior to the invasion. The leaflets ordered the Iraqi Army to abandon their positions, return to their homes, and await further instructions.

Bremer was later heavily criticized for officially disbanding the former Iraqi Army. Bremer, however, contends that there were no armies to disband. He says that the brutality of Saddam's rule over his people and his own Iraqi soldiers led to many simply leaving after the fall of Baghdad to go home; some to protect their own families from the rampant looting. Critics claimed his extreme measures, including the firing of thousands of school teachers and removing Ba'ath party members from top government positions, helped create and worsen an atmosphere of discontent among those who did not "fit in" with the socioeconomic profile the Americans were working with. As the insurgency grew stronger, so did the criticisms. Bremer was also in personal danger because of Iraqi perceptions of him and was henceforth heavily guarded. Attempts to assassinate him took place a few times - one of the more publicized attempts occurred on December 6, 2003 when his convoy was driving on the dangerous Baghdad Airport Road while returning to the fortified Green Zone. The convoy was hit by a bomb and gunfire, with the rear window of his official car blown away and as bullets flew, Bremer and his deputies ducked below their seats. No injuries or casualties were reported and news of the assassination attempt on Bremer was not released until December 19, 2003, during his visit to Basra.

During Bremer's stay in Iraq, the Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden allegedly placed a bounty of 10,000 grams of gold on Bremer, the equivalent of US$125,000 at the time.

Despite the messages the CIA reportedly communicated to the Iraqi army, the argument was still ventured that by the time Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003 the previous Army had demobilized, or as Bremer puts it, "had simply dissolved...." However, as Mark Danner reports in an essay in ''The New York Review of Books'' entitled 'Iraq: The War of Imagination' and dated September 21, 2006, American agents - including one colonel and a number of CIA operatives - had already began meeting regularly with Iraqi officers in order to reconstitute the army as a working force. Implied in this is the notion that the army - temporarily "demobilized" or not - did in fact continue to exist as a coherent entity, indeed coherent enough that it could be consulted and negotiated with. This seems to concur with the position of the first Director of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, ex-General Jay Garner, who Bremer had replaced. As Bob Woodward reports in his book ''State of Denial'', Garner, upon hearing of the order to disband the army, attempted to convince Bremer to rethink the dissolution. Bremer was reported as saying: "The plans have changed. The thought is we don't want the residuals of the old army. We want a new and fresh army." To this, Garner replied: "Jerry, you can get rid of an army in a day, but it takes years to build one."

The issue of disbanding the old Iraqi Army found itself, once again, the center of media attention with two articles explaining why Bremer ostensibly did not make the decision on his own. The first press release by the ''New York Times'' included a letter written by Bremer to President George W. Bush dated May 20, 2003 describing the progress made so far since Bremer's arrival in Baghdad, including one sentence that reads "I will parallel this step with an even more robust measure dissolving Saddam's military and intelligence structures to emphasize that we mean business."

The second press release dated September 6, 2007 was submitted by Bremer as an Op Ed piece for the ''New York Times''. Titled "How I Didn't Dismantle Iraq's Army", Bremer says he did not make the decision on his own, and that the decision was reviewed by "top civilian and military members of the American government"; which included General John Abizaid, who briefed officials in Washington that "'there are no organized Iraqi military units left'".

Bremer’s article goes into further about how the Coalition Provisional Authority did consider two alternatives: To recall the old army or to rebuild a new army with "both vetted members of the old army and new recruits." According to Bremer, Abizaid liked the second alternative.

Bremer also details the situation he and the major decision makers faced; especially when the large Shiite majority in the new Army could have had problems with the thought of having a former Sunni officer issuing orders.

Furthermore, a memo from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on May 8, 2003 that said "the coalition 'will actively oppose Saddam Hussein's old enforcers - the Baath Party, Fedayeen Saddam, etc...'we will make clear that the coalition will eliminate the remnants of Saddam's regime'" was sent to both National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

After two protesters were killed by U.S. troops, the CPA agreed to pay up to 250,000 former soldiers a stipend of $50 to $150 a month. Conscripts were given a single severance payment. Many of the former soldiers found this to be grossly inadequate.

Charles H. Ferguson, director of critically acclaimed ''No End in Sight'', created a video response to Bremer's Op Ed piece on September 6, 2007. (This was the very first ''New York Times'' video Op Ed letter in history.)

"De-Ba'thification" of the Iraqi civil service

Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party counted among its members a huge majority of Iraq's governmental employees, including educational officials and some teachers. By order of the CPA, these skilled and mostly apolitical people were banned from holding any positions in Iraq's new government and public service. Critics claim these extreme measures, resulting in the firing of thousands of school teachers and removing Ba'ath party members from top government positions, helped create and worsen an atmosphere of discontent among those who did not "fit in" with the socioeconomic profile the Americans wanted to impose. This policy of "de-Ba'thification", now widely seen as having created bitter, new divisions in the country, and fuelling the violence that has torn Iraq apart, was reversed in January 2008.

Bremer was once again warned of the harm his actions would have. According to Woodward, when Garner asserted that none of the ministries would be able to function after this order, Bremer asked the Bahgdad station chief for his thoughts. "If you put this out, .... you will put 50,000 people on the street, underground, and mad at Americans," he replied. Woodward: "And these 50,000 were the most powerful, well-connected elites from all walks of life."

Management of Iraq's oil revenue

Bremer was accountable to the Secretary of Defense for the actions he took. But, since his authority to spend Iraq's oil revenue derived from United Nations Resolution 1483, he was also accountable to the UN. The authority he derived from the UN to spend Iraq's oil revenue bound him to show that:

Expenditures were intended to benefit the Iraqi people.

The programs that were funded were decided upon, and supervised in an open, transparent manner.

Iraqis were invited to give meaningful input into how funds were spent.

The administrator of Iraq was co-operating with the International Advisory and Monitoring Board.

That proper fiscal controls were in place, so that it could be demonstrated that none of the funds were diverted, or mis-spent.

One of the concerns the IAMB raised repeatedly was that the CPA had repaired the well-heads and pipelines for transporting Iraq’s oil, but they had stalled on repairing the meters that were necessary to document the shipment of Iraqi oil, so it could be demonstrated that none of it was being smuggled.

In their final press release before the CPA’s authority expired, on June 22, 2004, the IAMB stated:

The CPA has acknowledged that the failure to meter the oil shipments resulted in some oil smuggling — an avoidable loss of Iraq's oil that was Bremer's responsibility. Neither Bremer nor any of his staff has offered an explanation for their failure to repair the meters.

Inadequate financial controls

Failure to perform month-end cash reconciliations

Under Bremer’s stewardship the CPA requested $12 billion in cash from the US treasury. Under Bremer’s stewardship the CPA paid out $12 billion in cash. The external auditors management notes point out that the CPA didn’t perform a cash reconciliation until April 2004, eleven months into Bremer's mandate, when they started their work. See Congressional hearing when Ambassador L. Paul Bremer and Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, testified on management of U.S. funds in Iraq.

Failure to employ qualified internal auditors

In his second regulation, Bremer committed the Coalition Provisional Authority to hire a reputable firm of certified chartered accountants, to serve as internal auditors, to help make sure the Coalition's finances were administered according to modern accounting principles. These internal auditors would be separate and distinct from the external auditors who would report to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board. Bremer did not make sure the CPA hired internal auditors, however.

When the external auditors arrived, they learned that Bremer had not made sure the CPA lived up to the commitment to hire internal auditors to help set up a reliable accounting system. On the contrary they learned that a single contracted consultant kept track of the CPA’s expenditures in a series of spreadsheets.

The external auditors reported that rather than use a modern double-entry accounting system the CPA used what they described as “a single-entry, cash based, transaction list”.

Unaccounted-for funds

On January 30, 2005, an official report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, cited by ''Time'', stated that $9 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq might have disappeared in frauds, corruption and other misbehavior. On one particular salary register, only 602 names among 8206 could be verified. As another cited example, the Coalition Authority authorized Iraqi officials to postpone declaring the reception of $2.5 billion, which the provisional government had received in spring through the Oil for Food program.

Bremer wrote an eight-page reply to deny the accusations and stated that, during the IG's inquiry, Bowen's people refused to interview Bremer's deputies, and the IG's report failed to mention that Bremer and his people worked under extraordinary conditions, faced a high turnover rate, and had insufficient number of personnel to carry out their rebuilding and humanitarian relief efforts.

Bremer's claim that Bowen's staff made no attempt to interview his staff is at odds with the detailed account of the external auditors, of their attempts to meet with Bremer and his staff. In their management notes they describe how some of the CPA's senior staff, including Bremer himself, just would not make themselves available to meet with the auditors. Others, like George Wolfe, the CPA's ''de facto'' treasurer, showed a total lack of cooperation.

As head of the CPA, Bremer bears the overall responsibility for the CPA's hiring policies that led to his staff being dangerously inexperienced and unable to provide the oversight necessary to protect the funds they were administering.

This issue also became a topic of discussion during some of Bremer's Q&A; sessions with students who attended Bremer's presentations during Bremer's campus speaking tours. Some questioned Bremer if he could have done things differently in Iraq, but were notably disappointed when he avoided the question. Bremer allegedly responded to one such question with, “I will tell you what I told them, I'm saving that for my book... I need more time to reflect.”

In February 2007, Bremer defended the way he spent billions of dollars in Iraqi funds after the U.S. invasion. In a prepared testimony he said that he did the best he could to kickstart the Iraqi economy, "which was flat on its back."

Progress of reconstruction

One of the CPA's most important tasks was the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure. Compared to the rapid repair of Iraq's oil infrastructure — with the notable exception of the meters — the progress of reconstruction on Iraq's potable water, sewage and electricity systems was extremely slow. Defenders argued that this was due to the unanticipated volume and fierceness of those resisting the Coalition's occupation. Critics blame the CPA's preference for contracts with connected US firms; only 2% of the reconstruction contracts in 2003 were awarded to Iraqi firms.

Shutting down the newspaper Al-Hawza

On March 28, 2004 Bremer ordered the 759th Military Police Battalion to shut down controversial Iraqi newspaper ''al-Hawza'' for two months. This move was widely criticized as running directly counter to the Bush administration's announced goal of helping transform Iraq into a modern, democratic state. This move was even criticized by members of Bremer's own appointees on the Iraqi Governing Council.

''Al-Hawza'' started after the removal of Saddam Hussein and was considered a mouthpiece for Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. It was shut down by the United States-led administration headed by Bremer on March 28, 2004, after being accused of encouraging violence against Coalition troops. There was discussion with Sir Jeremy Greenstock (UK's Special Representative for Iraq), about preparations to arrest al-Sadr, who by early March 2004 had increased his militia following, the Mahdi army, from about 200 followers to some 6,000, in seven months. Bremer wrote in his book that "Greenstock said that this would be a difficult time to go after him ... I first urged [his] arrest last August...".

Iyad Allawi, leader of the interim government, explicitly gave ''al-Hawza'' permission to re-open on July 18, 2004.

Granting some foreign contractors immunity from Iraqi law

Two days before he left Iraq, Bremer signed "Order 17" giving all staff associated with the CPA and the American government immunity from Iraqi law. One of his former top aides is quoted as saying, “we wanted to make sure our military, civilians and contractors were protected from Iraqi law.” This stipulation was later incorporated into Iraqi law.

Since then, violent events in Iraq involving American security companies such as Blackwater have resulted in great resentment among Iraqis, who view them as private armies acting with impunity on their soil.

Early departure

Bremer's early departure was sprung on the world press as a complete surprise. But the turnover of political power a couple of days earlier was suggested by members of the Bush administration to thwart any plans the insurgency may have had for June 30.

U.S. intelligence sources had monitored chatter that suggested resistance elements were planning demonstrations, or outright attacks, to coincide with the time of the official handover. An early handover would preempt the plans of resistance elements.

Others read ''al-Hayat''s version published one day after Bremer's departure. The Arabic language newspaper released a story about Bremer's alleged romantic ties with an Iraqi translator, who continued to work for Bremer despite their apparent conflict of interests. The Arabic language newspaper further details the affair stating that the Iraqi woman and her family left for Jordan three days prior to the handover to wait for their anticipated departure for the United States. The paper can be quoted as saying that close acquaintances of the "young Iraqi lover" knew about the affair with the top American official (presumably Bremer) and knew something about future marriage plans. The subject of Bremer taking Iraqi women as "wives" has come up before during his stay in Iraq. Bremer responded to a reporter's question about the rumor of marrying Iraqi women, "I have the maximum number of wives permitted by my religion".

His early departure was disruptive to the smooth transition of authority, as the KPMG audit of the Development Fund for Iraq made clear. In their management notes the external auditors describe trying to meet with Bremer, and being very surprised by his early departure.

Many of Bremer's senior staff left when he did, meaning that important documents, required for the completion of the audit, could not be signed by the appropriate staff members.

There are others, however, who feel that Bremer should have been relieved far earlier. "Bremer is the largest single disaster in American foreign policy in modern times," said former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. "Bremer, no later than September [2003], should have been relieved.

Media portrayal

A character based on Bremer is portrayed by Greg Kinnear in the film ''Green Zone'', which was directed by Paul Greengrass. Kinnear portrays Clark Poundstone, Pentagon Special Intelligence. One reviewer saw, despite the "usual ... fictitious ... disclaimer, ... Paul Brenner [sic]," in the Poundstone character.

Life after public service

After his departure from the US government, Bremer, moved to Chester, Vermont and became an artist, crafting oil paintings of New England country landscapes. He also as of 2009 reportedly did consulting work and served on a number of boards in the Washington area. He remained a media presence with interviews and the release of his memoirs, and emerged as a critic of the Obama administration's efforts to promote democracy overseas. He is also a consistent advocate for a continued US presence in Iraq.

While many other conservatives began advocating for a withdrawal from Afghanistan, Bremer endorsed the Obama administration's new strategy in 2010, describing it as "reasonable" and stating: "The President deserves credit for deciding to replicate President Bush’s Iraq strategy by sending more troops to the fight in Afghanistan." Following his return to private life, he also endorsed Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis. He stated: "It is a fact of history that Europe is based on Judeo-Christian values. But Europe seems unwilling, or perhaps afraid, to acknowledge this reality."

Quotations

"The new administration seems to be paying no attention to the problem of terrorism. What they will do is stagger along until there's a major incident and then suddenly say, `Oh, my God, shouldn't we be organized to deal with this?'" (February 26, 2001, speaking at a McCormick Tribune Foundation conference on terrorism)

"...there are reasons why some people turn to terrorism. There are political reasons, there are economic reasons. Some people are simply criminals...."

"Ladies and gentlemen... we got him!" (December 14, 2003, announcing the capture of Saddam Hussein)

"If you don’t know what you stand for, you cannot easily figure out how to defend it." (Interview, Bellum: A Project of The Stanford Review, March 18, 2010)

References

Further reading

L. Paul Bremer & Malcolm McConnell: ''My Year In Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope'', 1st edn. (Canada: Simon & Schuster, January 2006). ISBN 0-7432-7389-3 and ISBN 978-0-7432-7389-3.

External links

"Baghdad year zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia", Naomi Klein, September 2004

Paul Bremer profile, NNDB

Paul Bremer timeline at the History Commons

CPA Bios

Bremer's Tale: The Top American in Iraq, NPR ''Fresh Air from WHYY'' (Audio), January 10, 2006

CPA Reunion Party ''January 14, 2006''

"Frontline: the lost year in iraq |PBS" 2006

What has happened to Iraq's missing $1bn?, The Independent, September 19, 2005

My sadness at the privatisation of Iraq, ''Times Online'', August 12, 2005

Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector, ''Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2005''—Contains another perspective on the conflict between Bremer and Inspector General Bowen

Iraq reconstruction riddled with waste, audits find ''The Seattle Times, July 4, 2005''

Ave Maria University Commencement Address, June 19, 2005

Bremer Speaks at Clark University ''Worcester IMC April 19, 2005''

Bremer, students spar ''The Bowdoin Orient'', April 15, 2005

Bremer explains, defends Iraq war ''Brunswick Times Record'', April 11, 2005

Oversight of Funds Provided to the Iraqi Ministries through the National Budget Process report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that documents the unaccounted for $9 billion

TD Waterhouse Keynote Address @ IA Conference ''American Rhetoric February 4, 2005''

Transcript: Paul Bremer, Former U.S. Administrator in Iraq ''Fox News'' July 6, 2004

Paul Bremer's Rough Ride ''TIMES Archive'' June 28, 2004

Bremer Answers Questions''USAToday'' June 17, 2004

In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime'' Washington Post, May 22, 2004 (about young volunteers hired by the Pentagon to handle financial tasks in Iraq)

Racing the Clock in Iraq''Newsweek'' February 9, 2004

Letter From Baghdad, War After the War ''The New Yorker'' November 2003

"Online NewsHour" Interview September 24, 2003

Frontline Interview with L. Paul Bremer August 1, 2003

Faith Gives Him Strength, June 19, 2003

How Should America Address Terrorist Aggression, ''CNN'' television interview September 14, 2001

Countering the Changing Threat of International Terrorism A Presentation by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer ''The Nixon Center'' July 19, 2000

Global Threat, ''pbs'' interview of L. Paul Bremer, III and former CIA official Larry Johnson, June 6, 2000

Terrorism: its evolving nature - by L. Paul Bremer, III ''US Dept. of State Bulletin'' May 1989

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Coordinates	42°17′17″N18°50′33″N
Name	Michael Bloomberg
Order	108th Mayor of New York City
Term start	January 1, 2002
Predecessor	Rudy Giuliani
Successor	Incumbent
Birth name	Michael Rubens Bloomberg
Birth date	February 14, 1942
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Party	Democratic Party (until 2001)Republican Party (2001–2007)Independent (2007–present)
Partner	Diana Taylor
Residence	Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Johns Hopkins University (B.S.)Harvard University (M.B.A.)
Religion	Reform Judaism
Blank1	Net worth
Data1	US$18.1 billion (2011)
Signature	Michael Bloomberg Signature.svg
Website	}}

Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician and philanthropist. Since 2002, he has been the Mayor of New York City and, with a net worth of $18.1 billion in 2011, he is also the 13th-richest person in the United States. He is the founder and eighty-eight percent owner of Bloomberg L.P., a financial news and information services media company.

A lifelong Democrat before seeking elective office, Bloomberg switched his registration in 2001 and ran for mayor as a Republican, winning the election that year and a second term in 2005. Bloomberg left the Republican Party over policy and philosophical disagreements with national party leadership in 2007 and ran for his third term in 2009 as an independent candidate on the Republican ballot line. He was frequently mentioned as a possible independent candidate for the 2008 presidential election, which fueled further speculation when he left the Republican Party. There was also speculation that he would run as a vice-presidential candidate. Bloomberg did not, however, seek the presidency nor was he selected as a running mate by any of the presidential candidates.

In the fall of 2008, Bloomberg successfully campaigned for an amendment to New York City's term-limits law, in order to allow him to run for a third term in 2009. Bloomberg won the election on November 3, 2009.

Early life

He was born at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston on February 14, 1942. His father, William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), was a real estate agent, and the son of Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, a Jewish immigrant. His mother, Charlotte Rubens Bloomberg, was born on January 2, 1909, in New Jersey, the daughter of a Jewish Russian immigrant and a New Jersey–born mother. She died, aged 102, on June 19, 2011.

The family lived in Allston, Massachusetts, until Michael Bloomberg was two years old; they then moved Brookline, Massachusetts, for the next two years, finally settling in Medford, a Boston suburb, where he lived until after he graduated from college. His younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, has been Commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, since February 2002.

Bloomberg attended Johns Hopkins University, where he joined Phi Kappa Psi, worked as a parking lot attendant to pay his tuition, and graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in electrical engineering.Later he received his MBA degree from Harvard Business School. In 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of public service from Tufts University, and in 2009 received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Fordham University. In 2011, Bloomberg also received an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from George Washington University.

Bloomberg married Yorkshire-born Susan Brown in 1975. Their marriage produced two daughters: Emma (b. ca. 1979) and Georgina (b. 1983), who were featured on ''Born Rich'', a documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Bloomberg divorced Brown and is currently living with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.

Business career

In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers where he headed equity trading, and later, systems development. In 1981, he was fired from Salomon Brothers and was given a $10 million severance package. Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. In 1982, Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer, installing 22 of the company's Market Master terminals and investing $30 million in the company. The company was renamed Bloomberg L.P. in 1986. By 1987, it had installed 5,000 terminals. Within a few years, ancillary products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), the Bloomberg Messaging Service, and the Bloomberg newswire were launched. As of 2009, the company had more than 250,000 terminals worldwide. His company also has a radio network which currently has its flagship station as 1130 WBBR-AM in New York City. He left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York. Bloomberg was replaced as CEO by Lex Fenwick. The company is now led by president Daniel Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor under Bloomberg.

As the mayor of New York, Bloomberg declines to receive a city salary, accepting remuneration of $1.00 annually for his services. He maintains a public listing in the New York City phone directory, residing not in Gracie Mansion – the official mayor's mansion – but instead at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, at 17 East 79th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues. He owns additional homes in London, Bermuda and Vail.

Bloomberg, by his own accounts at least, frequently rides the New York City Subway, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in ''The New York Times'' contradicted this notion, suggesting instead that he often was chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the Lexington Avenue line.

Bloomberg wrote an autobiography, with help from a ghost writer, called ''Bloomberg by Bloomberg'' (1997, ISBN 0-471-15545-4).

Wealth

In March 2009, Forbes reported Michael Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion over the previous year, enjoying the world's biggest increase in wealth in 2009. At that time, there were only four fortunes in the U.S. that were larger (although the Wal-Mart family fortune is split among four people). He moved from 142nd to 17th in the ''Forbes'' list of the world's billionaires in only two years (March 2007 – March 2009). In March 2011, his total wealth had increased to $18.1 billion, ranking 10th in the Forbes 400 and 30th in the world.

Philanthropy

Bloomberg's personal net worth, in addition to aiding his political career, has allowed him to engage in substantial philanthropic endeavors, including the donation of over $300 million to Johns Hopkins University, where he served as the chairman of the board from 1996 to 2002.

According to the ''Chronicle of Philanthropy'', Bloomberg, through his Bloomberg Family Foundation, donated and/or pledged $138 million in 2004, $144 million in 2005, $165 million in 2006, and $205 million in 2007, making him the seventh-largest individual contributor to philanthropy in the U.S. for 2007. 2006 recipients include the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health; World Lung Foundation and the World Health Organization. In 2008, Bloomberg's website announced a combined donation of $500 million with Bill Gates to help governments in developing countries with tobacco control.

According to ''The New York Times'', Bloomberg has been an “anonymous donor” to the Carnegie Corporation each year for the last several years, with gifts ranging from $5 to $20 million. The Carnegie Corporation has distributed this contribution to hundreds of New York City organizations ranging from the Dance Theatre of Harlem to Gilda's Club, a non-profit organization that provides support to people and families living with cancer.

In 1996, Bloomberg endowed the William Henry Bloomberg Professorship at Harvard with a $3 million gift in honor of his father, who died in 1963, saying, "throughout his life, he recognized the importance of reaching out to the nonprofit sector to help better the welfare of the entire community." Bloomberg also endowed his hometown synagogue, Temple Shalom, which was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.

Bloomberg reports giving $254 million in 2009 to almost 1,400 nonprofit organizations, saying, "I am a big believer in giving it all away and have always said that the best financial planning ends with bouncing the check to the undertaker."

On July 21, 2011, Bloomberg announced that he would donate $50 million to Sierra Club's “Beyond Coal” campaign, the grassroots organization’s efforts to close older coal plants and prevent new ones from being built. The gift, spread out over four years, will come from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Awards and honors

At the 2007 commencement exercises for Tufts University, Bloomberg delivered the commencement address. He was awarded an honorary degree in Public Service from the university. Likewise, Bloomberg delivered the 2007 commencement address at Bard College, where he was also awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. In February 2003, he received the "Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets" from the Yale School of Management. Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 Time 100. In September 2007, ''Vanity Fair'' ranked him #9 in its "Vanity Fair 100: The 2007 New Establishment."

In May 2008, Bloomberg was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Pennsylvania, where he delivered the commencement speech to the class of 2008. Bloomberg also delivered the commencement address to the class of 2008 at Barnard College, located in New York City, after receiving the Barnard Medal of Distinction, the College's highest honor.

It was announced on January 14, 2011, that Bloomberg had been selected as the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.

Bloomberg was also awarded a tribute award at the 2007 Gotham Awards, a New York-based celebrator of independent film. On November 19, 2008, Bloomberg received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Additionally, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at Fordham University's 2009 commencement ceremonies.

In 2009, Bloomberg received a Healthy Communities Leadership Award from Leadership for Healthy Communities – a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation national program – for his policies and programs that increase access to healthful foods and physical activity options in the city. For instance, to increase access to grocery stores in underserved areas, the Bloomberg administration developed a program called FRESH that offers zoning and financial incentives to developers, grocery store operators and land owners. His administration also created a Healthy Bodega initiative, which provides healthful food samples and promotional support to grocers in lower-income areas to encourage them to carry one-percent milk and fruits and vegetables. Under Bloomberg's leadership, the city also: passed a Green Carts bill, which supports mobile produce vendors in lower-income areas; expanded farmers' markets using the city's Health Bucks program which provides coupons to eligible individuals to buy produce at farmers' markets in lower-income areas; and committed $111 million in capital funding for playground improvements. New York also was one of the first cities in the nation to help patrons make more informed decisions about their food choices by requiring fast-food and chain restaurants to label their menus with calorie information.

Harassment controversies

Bloomberg has previously been accused of sexually harassing women under his employment, which he has denied. In 1997, a former Bloomberg L.P. employee who became pregnant while employed filed a lawsuit accusing Bloomberg of saying "Kill it!" and "great, No. 16", which may have been a reference to the number of pregnant women in the company. In December 2008, ''Conde Nast Portfolio'' published a story – "Mayor Bloomberg's Delicate Condition" – which reported that in September 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a class-action lawsuit against Bloomberg's company on behalf of three women who worked on the business side, plus a group of women who worked at Bloomberg's company between 2002 and the present. The article said the plaintiffs "now total 72, out of about 500 women who took maternity leave during that time, a high percentage, according to the agency".

Elections

2001 election

In 2001, the incumbent mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election, as the city limited the mayoralty to two consecutive terms. Several well-known New York City politicians aspired to succeed him. Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor as a member of the Republican Party ticket.

Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Congressman, to become the Republican nominee. Meanwhile, the Democratic primary did not produce a first-round winner. After a runoff, the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.

In the general election, Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement. He also had a huge spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the amount of contributions which a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public campaign funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green by five to one. One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the World Trade Center attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.

In addition to serving as the Republican nominee, Bloomberg had the ballot line of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exert strong influence. Some say that endorsement was important, as Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and combine all the votes received on all lines. Green, the Democrat, also had the ballot line of the Working Families Party. He also created an independent line called Students First whose votes were combined with those on the Independence line). Another factor was the vote in Staten Island, which has traditionally been far friendlier to Republicans than the rest of the city. Bloomberg handily beat Green in that borough, taking 75 percent of the vote there. Overall, Bloomberg won 50 percent to 48 percent.

Bloomberg's election marked the first time in New York City history that two different Republicans had been elected mayor consecutively. New York City has not been won by a Republican in a presidential election since Calvin Coolidge won in 1924. Bloomberg is considered a social liberal, who is pro-choice, in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and an advocate for stricter gun control laws.

Despite the fact that 68 percent of New York City's registered voters are Democrats, Bloomberg decided the city should host the 2004 Republican National Convention. The Convention drew thousands of protesters, many of them local residents angry over the Iraq war and other issues. The Police Department arrested approximately 1,800 protesters, but according to ''The New York Times'', more than 90 percent of the cases were later dismissed or dropped for lack of evidence.

2005 election

Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York.

Bloomberg spent over $1 million on his campaign by late October 2005 and was projected to exceed the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. In late 2004 or early 2005, Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign.

Former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer won the Democratic nomination to oppose Bloomberg in the general election. Thomas Ognibene sought to run against Bloomberg in the Republican Party's primary election. Bloomberg's campaign successfully challenged enough of the signatures Ognibene had submitted to the Board of Elections to prevent Ognibene from appearing on ballots for the Republican primary. Instead, Ognibene ran only on the Conservative Party ticket. Ognibene accused Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals, a feeling echoed by others.

Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States. Though a Republican at the time, Bloomberg is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and did not believe that Roberts was committed to maintaining Roe v. Wade.

In addition to receiving Republican support, Bloomberg obtained the endorsements of several prominent Democrats: former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch; former Democratic governor Hugh Carey; former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, and his son, Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr.; former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

2009 election

On October 2, 2008, Bloomberg announced that he would seek to extend the city's term limits law and run for a third mayoral term in 2009, arguing that a leader of his field is needed during the Wall Street financial crisis. "Handling this financial crisis while strengthening essential services ... is a challenge I want to take on," Bloomberg told at a news conference. "So should the City Council vote to amend term limits, I plan to ask New Yorkers to look at my record of independent leadership and then decide if I have earned another term". On October 23, 2008, the City Council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit to three consecutive four-year terms, thus allowing Bloomberg to run for office again. After two days of public hearings, Bloomberg signed the bill into law on November 3.

Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, who had been New York City Comptroller for the past eight years and before that President of the New York City Board of Education. Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 50.6 percent to 46.0 percent.

After the release of Independence Party campaign filings in January 2010, it was reported that Bloomberg had made two $600,000 contributions from his personal account to the Independence Party on October 30 and November 2, 2009. The Independence Party then paid $750,000 of that money to Republican Party political operative John Haggerty Jr.

This prompted to an investigation beginning in February 2010 by the office of New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. into possible improprieties. The Independence Party later questioned how Haggerty spent the money, which was to go to poll-watchers. Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws. Haggerty also spent money from a separate $200,000 donation from Bloomberg on office space.

Mayoralty

thumb|Bloomberg attending the opening night of the 2011 Tribeca Film FestivalBloomberg assumed office as the 108th Mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. He won re-election in 2005. As mayor, Bloomberg initially struggled to gain high approval levels from the public; however, he subsequently developed and maintained high approval ratings.

Bloomberg's re-election means the Republicans have won the previous four mayoral elections (although Bloomberg's decision to leave the Republican Party and be declared an independent on June 19, 2007, resulted in the Republican Party's losing the mayor's seat prior to the expiration of his second term). Bloomberg joins Rudy Giuliani and Fiorello La Guardia as re-elected Republican mayors in this mostly Democratic city. (John Lindsay was also elected mayor of New York twice while a registered Republican; however, Lindsay did not receive the Republican Party nomination during his 1969 campaign for re-election but ran successfully on the Liberal ticket and joined the Democratic Party during his second term.)

Bloomberg has said that he wants public education reform to be the legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second. Some have alleged that he made certain decisions regarding the closure of seventeen day-care centers across the city for political reasons. According to the National Assessment of Educational Performance, fourth-grade reading scores from 2002 through 2009 rose nationally by 11 points. However, on May 10, 2010, ''The New York Times'' reported:

"According to the test [NAEP], New York City eighth graders have shown no significant improvement [in math or reading] since they began taking it in 2003, mirroring the largely flat performance of American eighth graders as a whole during that period. In the city, the lack of improvement held true across ethnic groups and also among lower-income students."

The annual New York City Department of Education Budget noted that spending for education was $12.5 billion in 2002 and $21 billion in 2009.

Bloomberg has chosen to apply a statistical, results-based approach to city management, appointing city commissioners based on their expertise and granting them wide autonomy in their decision-making. Breaking with 190 years of tradition, he implemented what ''New York Times'' political reporter Adam Nagourney called a "bullpen" open office plan, similar to a Wall Street trading floor, in which dozens of aides and managerial staff are seated together in a large chamber. The design is intended to promote accountability and accessibility.

Political stands

Some of the policies Bloomberg advocates parallel those of either the Democratic or the Republican party platform. He is socially liberal, supporting abortion rights, gay marriage, gun control, and amnesty for illegal immigrants, for example. On economics, foreign, and domestic issues, Bloomberg tends to be conservative. He opposes a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, and criticizes those who favor one. Economically, he supports government involvement in issues such as public welfare and climate change, while being strongly in favor of free trade, pro-business, and describing himself as a fiscal conservative because he balanced the city's budget.

Social issues

Bloomberg supports abortion rights, stating: "Reproductive choice is a fundamental human right and we can never take it for granted. On this issue, you're either with us or against us." He has criticized pro-choice politicians who support pro-life candidates.

Bloomberg supports governmental funding for embryonic stem cell research, calling the Republican position on the issue "insanity". He also supports same-sex marriage with the rationale that "I think anybody should be allowed to marry anybody."

Bloomberg supports the strict drug laws of New York City. He has stated that he smoked marijuana in the past, and was quoted in a 2001 interview as saying "You bet I did. I enjoyed it." This led to a reported $500,000 advertising campaign by NORML, featuring his image and the quote. Bloomberg stated in a 2002 interview that he regrets the remark and does not believe that marijuana should be decriminalized.

Domestic issues

On crime, Bloomberg opposes the death penalty, stating, "I'd rather lock somebody up and throw away the key and put them in hard labor, the ultimate penalty that the law will allow, but I'm opposed to the death penalty." As mayor he increased the mandatory minimum sentence for illegal possession of a loaded handgun. In regard to the change, Bloomberg commented, "Illegal guns don't belong on our streets and we're sending that message loud and clear. We're determined to see that gun dealers who break the law are held accountable, and that criminals who carry illegal loaded guns serve serious time behind bars."

Bloomberg replaced the school board set up by the state with direct mayoral control over public education. He raised the salaries of teachers by fifteen percent while the test scores of students in the city and the graduation rate rose as well. He is opposed to social promotion, i.e. the promotion of students to the next grade level for strictly social reasons, stating that students should be promoted only when they are adequately prepared for the next grade level. He favors after-school programs to help students who are behind. As mayor, Bloomberg strengthened the cell-phone ban in schools.

In dealing with global warming and New York's role in it, he has enacted a plan called ''PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York'' to fight global warming, protect the environment and prepare New York for the projected 1 million more people expected to be living in the city by the year 2030. Bloomberg has been involved in motivating other cities to make changes, delivering the keynote address at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit and stating, "[W]e now know beyond a doubt that global warming is a reality. And the question we must all answer is, what are we going to do about it?" Bloomberg also talked about how he would go about fighting climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, using cleaner and more efficient fuels, and encouraging public transportation. His ideas have occasionally suffered setbacks, such as the New York State Assembly's rejection of his idea for applying congestion pricing below 60th Street in Manhattan.

On issues of domestic and homeland security, Bloomberg has attacked social conservatives on immigration, calling their stance unrealistic, "We're not going to deport 12 million people, so let's stop this fiction. Let's give them permanent status." He supports a federal ID database that uses DNA and fingerprint technology to keep track of all citizens and to verify their legal status. Bloomberg has held that illegal immigrants should be offered legalization and supported the congressional efforts of John McCain and the late Ted Kennedy in their attempt at immigration reform in 2007. Regarding border security, he compared it to the tide, stating, "It's as if we expect border control agents to do what a century of communism could not: defeat the natural market forces of supply and demand... and defeat the natural human desire for freedom and opportunity. You might as well as sit in your beach chair and tell the tide not to come in. As long as America remains a nation dedicated to the proposition that 'all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness', people from near and far will continue to seek entry into our country." In 2006, Bloomberg stated on his weekly WABC radio show that illegal immigration does not strain the financial resources of New York City, since many immigrants are hard working and "do not avail themselves of services until their situation is dire".

Bloomberg believes that the September 11, 2001 attacks were not intended to be solitary events. When he assumed office, he set up a Counterterrorism Bureau which works along with the NYPD intelligence division to gather information about terrorism affecting New York worldwide. He believes that funding for Homeland Security by the federal government should be distributed by risk, where cities that are considered to have the highest threat for a terrorist attack would get the most money. Bloomberg is also a supporter of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Economic issues

Michael Bloomberg characterizes himself as a fiscal conservative for turning the city's $6 billion deficit into a $3 billion surplus; however, conservative PAC Club for Growth has criticized him because he increased property taxes and spending while doing so.

Bloomberg has expressed a distaste of taxes, stating, "Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them, so they're a necessary evil." As mayor, he did raise property taxes to fund budget projects; however, in January 2007 he proposed cuts in property taxes by five percent and cuts in sales taxes, including the elimination of taxes on clothing and footwear. Bloomberg pointed to the Wall Street profits and the real estate market as evidence that the city's economy is booming and could handle a tax break.

Bloomberg's self-described fiscal conservatism also led him to eliminate the existing $6-billion deficit when he assumed office. Bloomberg balanced the budget of New York City by raising property taxes and making cuts to city agencies, excluding the police and fire departments.

Bloomberg is in favor of providing tax breaks to big corporations for the good of the whole community. As mayor, Bloomberg lobbied the CEO of Goldman Sachs to establish its headquarters across from Ground Zero by promising $1.65 billion in tax breaks. Regarding this deal, Bloomberg stated, "This [New York City] is where the best want to live and work. So I told him [CEO of Goldman Sachs], 'We can help with minimizing taxes. Minimizing your rent. Improving security. But in the end, this is about people.'"

Bloomberg has had a less cordial relationship with unions as mayor. In 2002, when New York City's transit workers threatened to strike, Bloomberg responded by riding a mountain bike through the city to show how the city could deal with the transit strike by finding alternate means of transportation and not pandering to the unions. Three years later, a clash between Bloomberg and the New York City Transit Authority over wages and union benefits led to a full blown strike that lasted three days. Negotiations led to the end of the strike in December 2005, but controversy exists over Bloomberg's handling of the situation.

Bloomberg is a staunch advocate of free trade and is strongly opposed to protectionism, stating, "The things that we have to worry about is this protectionist movement that has reared its head again in this country...." He worries about the growth of China and fears the lessening gap between the United States and other countries: "The rest of the world is catching up, and, there are people that say, surpassing us. I hope they are wrong. I hope those who think we are still in good shape are right. But nevertheless, the time to address these issues is right now."

Bloomberg has placed a strong emphasis on public health and welfare, adopting many liberal policies. As the mayor he made HIV, diabetes, and hypertension all top priorities. He extended the city's smoking ban to all commercial establishments and implemented a trans fat ban in restaurants. Mayor Bloomberg has been a strong supporter of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation – the largest urban healthcare agency in the United States – serving over 1.3 million New Yorkers, and has touted its use of information technology and Electronic Health Records to increase efficiency and enhance patient care. He launched a program called Opportunity NYC which is the nation's first-ever conditional cash transfer pilot program designed to help New Yorkers break the cycle of poverty in the city. He instituted a $7.5 billion municipal affordable housing plan, the largest in the nation, that is supposed to provide 500,000 New Yorkers with housing.

Bloomberg has expressed concern about poverty and growing class divisions stating, "This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing."

Foreign policy

As mayor, Bloomberg made trips to Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Israel in the first four months of 2007. In late 2007 he conducted an Asia trip that brought him to China, where he called for greater freedom of information to promote innovation. He attended the United Nations Climate Conference in Bali.

Initially, Bloomberg strongly supported the war in Iraq and the rationale for going in. He stated, "Don't forget that the war started not very many blocks from here" alluding to Ground Zero. In regard to the global War on Terrorism including Iraq he said, "It's not only to protect Americans. It's America's responsibility to protect people around the world who want to be free." During the 2004 presidential election campaign, New York City hosted the Republican National Convention at which Bloomberg endorsed President George W. Bush for President of the United States.

His enthusiasm seemed to have lessened somewhat over the course of the war. In August 2005 he said, "I think everybody has very mixed emotions about the war that was started to find weapons of mass destruction and then they were not found." Bloomberg expressed criticism of Democrats in Congress who wanted to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq calling them, "irresponsible".

Preservation and development issues

Mayor Bloomberg is a proponent of large-scale development. He has repeatedly come down in favor of projects such as the Atlantic Yards mega-development, the Hudson Yards redevelopment, and the Harlem rezoning proposal. This support has led to a negative response from the preservationist community. On smaller-scale issues, Bloomberg usually takes the side of development as well. He favors the demolition of Admiral's Row in order to build a supermarket parking lot. However, Bloomberg has occasionally come down on the side of preservation, most notably in vetoing landmark revocation for the Austin Nichols warehouse. This move was widely applauded by architectural historians. The City Council overruled the veto shortly thereafter, however.

2008 presidential campaign speculation

On February 27, 2008, Bloomberg announced that he would not run for president in 2008, and that he would endorse a candidate who takes an independent and non-partisan approach. He had also stated unequivocally, live on the ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'' TV show, December 31, 2007, that he was not going to run for president in 2008. Despite prior public statements by Bloomberg denying plans for a presidential run, many pundits believed Bloomberg would announce a campaign at a later date. On January 7, 2008, he met at the University of Oklahoma with a bipartisan group, including (now former) Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel and former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, both of whom had been frequently mentioned as possible running mates – to pressure the major party candidates to promote national unity and reduce partisan gridlock. Speculation that Bloomberg would choose this forum to announce his candidacy proved to be unfounded. Other purported signs that he planned to run included:

In summer 2006, he met with Al From of the Democratic Leadership Council, a centrist group, to talk about the logistics of a possible run. After a conversation with Bloomberg, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska suggested that he and Bloomberg could run on a shared independent ticket for the presidency.

On ''This Week'' on June 10, 2007, anchor George Stephanopoulos included panelist Jay Carney, who mentioned a conversation between Bloomberg and top staffers where he heard Bloomberg ask approximately how much a presidential campaign would cost. Carney said that one staffer replied, "Around $500 million." According to a ''Washington Post'' article, a $500 million budget would allow Bloomberg to circumvent many of the common obstacles faced by third party candidates seeking the White House. On June 19, 2007, Bloomberg left the Republican Party, filing as an independent after a speech criticizing the current political climate in Washington. On August 9, 2007, in an interview with former CBS News anchor Dan Rather that aired on August 21, Bloomberg categorically stated that he was not running for President, that he would not be running, and that there were no circumstances in which he would, saying, "If somebody asks me where I stand, I tell them. And that's not a way to get elected, generally. Nobody's going to elect me president of the United States. What I'd like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I'm a citizen."

Despite continued denials, a possible Bloomberg candidacy continues to be the subject of media attention, including a November ''Newsweek'' cover story. During a private reception in December 2007, Bloomberg conducted a version of bingo in which guests were to guess the meaning of the numbers on a printed card. When Bloomberg asked the significance of 271, one guest answered correctly: the number of electoral votes received by George W. Bush in 2000. In January 2008, CNN reported that a source close to Bloomberg said that the mayor had launched a research effort to assess his chances of winning a potential presidential bid. According to the report, the unidentified source also stated that Bloomberg had set early March as a timetable for making a decision as to whether or not to run. On January 16, 2008, it was reported that Bloomberg's business interests were placed in "a sort of blind trust" because of his possible run for the presidency. His interests were put under the management of Quadrangle Group, co-founded by reported Bloomberg friend Steven Rattner, though Bloomberg would ''"continue to have control of and access to certain investment decisions"''.

On January 18, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Bloomberg had a meeting in Austin, Texas, with Clay Mulford, a ballot-access expert and campaign manager for Ross Perot's third party presidential campaigns. Bloomberg denied that the meeting concerned a possible presidential campaign by him, stating "I'm not a candidate — it couldn't be clearer. Which of the words do you not understand?" On February 28, 2008, Bloomberg stated "I am not – and will not be – a candidate for president." He added that he is "hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership. The most productive role that I can serve is to push them forward, by using the means at my disposal to promote a real and honest debate.

At the same time that the presidential run was being considered, there was also some speculation that Bloomberg could be a candidate for the vice presidency in 2008. In a blog posting of June 21, 2007, The Politico's Ben Smith asked the question of whether a vice-presidential candidate can self-finance an entire presidential ticket. Many believed that Bloomberg would in fact be legally permitted to self-finance a campaign as the vice-presidential candidate.

Adding more fuel to the speculation that Bloomberg might consider a VP slot were a series of meetings he had in mid-August 2007 with former Georgia Senator Sam Nunn and later with Barack Obama on November 30, 2007. A May 17, 2008, breakfast meeting with John McCain led to speculation that Bloomberg might be on McCain's short list of possible VP candidates.

Rumored gubernatorial campaign

On November 6, 2007, the ''New York Post'' detailed efforts by New York Republicans to recruit Bloomberg to oppose then-incumbent Governor Eliot Spitzer in the 2010 election. Early polls indicated Bloomberg would defeat Spitzer in a landslide. (The potential 2010 match-up became moot when Spitzer resigned on March 17, 2008.) A March 20, 2008, poll of New York State voters had the Mayor topping newly ascended Governor David Paterson and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the 2010 gubernatorial election. Bloomberg denied plans to run for the governorship in 2010, and did not seek the nomination.

2012 presidential campaign speculation

In March 2010, Bloomberg's top political strategist Kevin Sheekey resigned from his mayoral advisory position and returned to Bloomberg LP, Bloomberg's company. It is speculated that the move will allow Sheekey to begin preliminary efforts for a Bloomberg presidential campaign in the 2012 election. An individual close to Bloomberg said, "the idea of continuing onward is not far from his [Bloomberg's] mind".

In October 2010, The Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg – which had attempted to recruit Bloomberg to run for the presidency in 2008 – announced it was relaunching its effort to persuade Bloomberg to wage a presidential campaign in 2012. The committee members insisted that they would persist in the effort in spite of Bloomberg's repeated denials of interest in seeking the presidency.

While on the December 12, 2010, episode of ''Meet the Press'', Bloomberg ruled out a run for the Presidency in 2012, stating: "I'm not going to run for president," further adding "I'm not looking at the possibility of running, (...) no way, no how."

On July 24, 2011, in the midst of Democrats' and Republicans' inability to agree on a budget plan and thus an increase in the federal debt limit, the Washington Post published a blog posting about groups organizing third party approaches. It focused on Michael Bloomberg as the best hope for a serious third party Presidential Candidate in 2012.

See also

List of people from Boston

List of Harvard University people

List of Johns Hopkins University people

List of mayors of New York City

List of philanthropists

References

Further reading

Brash, Julian. ''Bloomberg's New York: Class and Governance in the Luxury City'' (University of Georgia Press; 2010) 344 pages. Uses anthropology and geography to examine the mayor's corporate-style governance, with particular attention to the Hudson Yards plan, which aims to transform the far West Side into a high-end district.

External links

mikebloomberg.com, Bloomberg's official website

nyc.gov/mayor, official mayoral website

Profile at ''Bloomberg Businessweek''

#23 Michael Bloomberg at ''Forbes'' list of 2010 world's billionaires

Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues

Michael Bloomberg collected news and commentary] at the ''New York Daily News''

Michael Bloomberg collected news and commentary] at ''Newsday''

Biography at the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Category:1942 births Category:20th-century American people Category:21st-century American people Category:American aviators Category:American billionaires Category:American financial businesspeople Category:American mass media owners Category:American memoirists Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American Reform Jews Category:Eagle Scouts Category:Gun control advocates Category:Harvard Business School alumni Category:Independent politicians in the United States Category:Jewish American mayors Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Living people Category:Massachusetts Democrats Category:Mayors of New York City Category:New York Democrats Category:New York Republicans Category:News agency founders Category:Writers from Boston, Massachusetts Category:Writers from New York City

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James G. Rickards is an American lawyer, economist and investment banker with 35 years of experience on Wall Street, working in capital markets. He is a writer and is a regular commentator on finance and the emerging field of threat finance. Rickards advised clients of an impending financial collapse, of a decline in the dollar and a sharp rise in the price of gold, all years in advance. He believes the United States needs to go back to a gold standard and was one of the first to promote this view.

Biography

Rickards graduated from Cape May High School in Cape May, New Jersey in 1969. He graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in 1973 with a B.A. degree with honors and in 1974, from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. with an M.A. in international economics. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and an LL.M in taxation from New York University School of Law.

In 1981, Rickards was involved in the Iran hostage crisis and as former general counsel for the hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management (LCTM), he was the principal negotiator in the 1998 bailout of LCTM by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Rickards worked on Wall Street for 35 years. In 2001, Rickards began using his financial expertise to aid the U.S. national security community and the U.S. Department of Defense. From 2002 to 2006, he advised clients of an impending financial collapse, of a decline in the dollar and of a sharp rise in the price of gold, years before any of these events took place.

Rickards is now the senior managing director for market intelligence at Omnis, Inc., a consulting firm. On March 24, 2009, Rickards presented his view at a symposium at Johns Hopkins, that the U.S. dollar is vulnerable to attack from foreign governments through accumulation of gold and establishment of a new global currency. The same week, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, called for a new currency to be introduced and operated by the International Monetary Fund to replace the dollar as the basic unit of international commerce.

On September 10, 2009, Rickards testified before the U.S. House of Representatives about the risks of financial modeling, VaR and the 2008 financial crisis.

Rickards lives in Darien, Connecticut, where he is on the Republican Town Committee.

Gold standard

Rickards was one of the first to say that the United States should return to a gold standard, which would be more stable than fiat money. Rickards believes that it is inevitable that the U.S. will return to a gold standard and says the question is whether the process of returning to the gold standard will be a smooth process with public debate, congressional hearings, commissions and government announcements that will enable markets to adjust or if it will be handled in a chaotic fashion with collateral damage, civil unrest and some sort of domestic military operations. Rickards says currently, the U.S. is following the chaotic path. He says that a return to a gold standard would enable people to have confidence in the currency because they would know they could convert their paper money to gold at any time and the government would make payment and this would keep the system honest. Rickards believes that on an open market, the price of gold would be around $7,000 an ounce. He says the target price is between $5,000 and $10,000 per troy ounce in current U.S. dollars.

Quotes

Rickards writes and speaks on geopolitics, national security and global capital markets. He has written op-ed columns for the ''Financial Times, The New York Times'' and ''The Washington Post'' and has been interviewed in ''The Wall Street Journal'' and on CNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg and C-Span.

On the LTCM bailout and the late-2000s financial crisis:
"What strikes me now, looking back, is how nothing was changed: no lessons were applied. Even though the lessons were obvious, in 1998. […] Regulatory oversight needed to be ramped up […] The government did just the opposite. Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999, so that banks could become hedge funds. The U.S., in effect stared near-catastrophe in the eye, with LTCM, and decided to double down."

On national security:
"A lot of my clients are in the national security area, so I work a lot with the [U.S.] Department of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence and others. We obviously spend a lot of time thinking about threats to national security. And I have spent a lot of time in the counter-terrorism field and terrorist finance and other aspects of that. And if I had to rank threats to national security, I would rank Ben Bernanke above Osama bin Laden. […] Ben Bernanke is not on the run. He's sitting in a very high office but he's actually a greater threat because of what he is doing to destroy the [U.S.] dollar."

On the Federal Reserve:
"I think there's a huge credibility problem to begin with. Here's the Federal Reserve that has done nothing right as far back as I can recall. They missed the tech bubble, they missed the housing bubble, they kept interest rates too low for too long and the [financial] crisis, they underestimated the severity of it. When the crisis hit, they had no idea it was going to get that bad. Then they over-reacted by giving too much money away on no conditions whatsoever. And even to this day, they continue to believe the economy is getting better."

Selected articles

James G. Rickards, "A Mountain, Overlooked" ''The Washington Post'' (October 2, 2008). Retrieved May 16, 2011

Charles Duelfer and Jim Rickards, "Financial Time Bombs" ''The New York Times'' (December 20, 2008). Retrieved May 16, 2011

James Rickards, "How markets attacked the Greek piñata" ''The Financial Times'' (February 11, 2010). Retrieved May 16, 2011

References

External links

Lori Ann LaRocco, Interview with Jim Rickards CNBC (January 13, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011

Ron Hera, "Interview: Jim Rickards on Inflation and Currency Wars" Financial Sense (February 4, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011

Jim Rickards - "Just like the 1930s" YouTube. (March 19, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011

"Jim Rickards on Quantitative Easing… Currency War… Inflation… Political Instability" Fiat Collapse blog, with video link to Rickards on Fox News (January 29, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011

Category:American lawyers Category:American economists Category:New York University School of Law alumni Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni

Category:Living people