Name	Bloomberg L.P.
Logo
Type	Limited partnership
Industry	Mass media
Products	Broadcasting, publishing, radio
Foundation
Founder	Michael Bloomberg, Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar
Location city	Bloomberg Tower, Manhattan,New York City, New York
Location country	U.S.
Locations	200 offices (June 2010)
Key people	Peter Grauer (Chairman)Dan Doctoroff (President)
Revenue	US$ 6.9 billion (projected 2010)
Owner	Michael Bloomberg (88%)
Num employees	13,000 (Dec 2010)
Homepage	}}

Bloomberg L.P. is an American multinational mass media corporation based in New York City, New York. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.25 billion in 2009. Bloomberg L.P. was founded by Michael Bloomberg 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 machine's 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, 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.

Bloomberg L.P. was formed as a Delaware Limited Partnership in 1981 and has been in business since 1983. Michael Bloomberg owns 85% of the partnership. Bloomberg's core business is leasing terminals to subscribers. It also runs Bloomberg Television, a financial Television network, and a business radio station WBBR in New York City at a loss. Bloomberg's revenue for 2009 was estimated at $6.25 billion. Based on that estimate, the new projections would push revenue to nearly $6.9 billion for 2010. There are currently over 300,000 Bloomberg Terminal subscribers worldwide. Its competitors include SNL Financial, Interactive Data Corporation, 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 $667 million. 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 2008, Fenwick became the CEO of Bloomberg Ventures, a new venture capital division.

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

November 7, 2008, Bloomberg L.P. News brought a lawsuit (Bloomberg L.P. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) 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 during the Late-2000s financial crisis. Bloomberg, L.P. won at the trial court and the Fed's appeals were rejected at both the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. The data was released March 31, 2011.

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:1981 establishments in the United States Category:Companies based in Manhattan Category:Companies established in 1981 Category:Financial news agencies Category:Financial data vendors Category:Media companies based in New York City Category:Multinational companies based in New York City Category:News agencies based in the United States Category:Privately held companies based in New York City

bg:Блумбърг cs:Bloomberg da:Bloomberg LP de:Bloomberg L.P. es:Bloomberg L.P. fr:Bloomberg LP ko:블룸버그 L.P. it:Bloomberg (azienda) he:בלומברג (חברה) 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

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
Deputy	Jeremy Greenstock
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, Connecticut, United States
Spouse	Frances Winfield
Children	2
Party	Republican
Profession	Diplomat
Religion	Roman CatholicismEpiscopalian (Formerly)
Alma mater	Yale UniversityHarvard Business School Sciences Po Paris }}

Lewis Paul "Jerry" Bremer III (born September 30, 1941) is an American diplomat. He is most notable for his role as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority charged with overseeing Iraq's occupation after the 2003 invasion. He reported primarily to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and exercised authority over Iraq's civil administration. He served in this capacity from May 11, 2003, until 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.

Bremer and 1,700 of the employees of Marsh & McLennan had offices in the World Trade Center. Bremer's office was in the North Tower. In an interview with CNN after the Sept 11 attacks, he claimed that their office was located "above where the second aircraft hit."

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 permitted to rule by decree. Among his first and most notable decrees were Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 1 which banned the Ba'ath party in all forms and Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 dismantled the Iraqi Army.

On July 13, 2003, Bremer approved the creation of an Iraqi Interim Governing Council with the stated mission of "ensuring that the Iraqi people's interests are represented." The council members were chosen by Bremer from among groups and individuals which had supported the American invasion of Iraq. 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.

Bremer also empowered the CPA to develop and implement of the Iraqi constitution. The constitution however, turned into a controversial subject, when its first draft submitted by the CPA suggested banning political parties opposed to the US occupation from participating in elections; privatizing much of Iraq's industries and natural resources; and allowing the unelected Iraqi Interim Governing Council to sign a binding Status of Forces Agreement between Iraq and the United States. On March 1, 2004, after several hours of negotiations, the Iraqi Interim Governing Council resolved the disagreements the council members had with clauses in the 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 mass demonstrations among Iraq's population. The official signing finally took place for an interim constitution, to be revised or replaced by a second constitution after Iraqi elections, 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.

Bremer's role as the head of the CPA is notable for being the subject of much criticism. Large sums of money have been reported to have gone missing under Bremer's leadership. Bremer's attempts at privatizing much of Iraq's infrastructure and mineral wealth were also highly criticized. and Bremer's decision to disband the Iraqi Army is widely credited for fueling the Iraqi insurgency against the American occupation.

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

Post-Iraq

After his return from Iraq, Bremer engaged in a few speaking tours. On December 14, 2004, Bremer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W Bush, 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's April 18, 2005 visit as a guest speaker to Clark University, lead to protests against his role in the Iraq War. 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.

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.

On February 6, 2007, Bremer appeared before a Congressional committee investigating fraud and abuse and was questioned about missing funds 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)

In November 2010, Bremer joined World T.E.A.M. Sports, an Arlington, Virginia-based non-profit organization, as CEO and President. Bremer also serves as a member of the organization's board of directors.

Bremer 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. 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 claimed that many soldiers simply left after the fall of Baghdad; 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. 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 on numerous occasions - 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 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.

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 criticized the Obama administration for not devoting more effort to promoting 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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name	Paul Krugman
school tradition	New Keynesian economics
color	darkorange
birth date	February 28, 1953
birth place	Albany, New York
nationality	United States
institution	Princeton University,London School of Economics
field	International economics, Macroeconomics
alma mater	MIT (PhD)Yale University (BA)
influences	John Maynard KeynesJohn HicksPaul Samuelson
opposed	Freshwater economicsAustrian School
contributions	International Trade TheoryNew Trade TheoryNew Economic Geography
awards	John Bates Clark Medal (1991)Príncipe de Asturias Prize (2004)Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics (2008)
signature
repec prefix	e
repec id	pkr10 }}

Paul Robin Krugman (; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (informally the Nobel Prize in Economics) for his contributions to New Trade Theory and New Economic Geography. According to the Nobel Prize Committee, the prize was given for Krugman's work explaining the patterns of international trade and the geographic concentration of wealth, by examining the impact of economies of scale and of consumer preferences for diverse goods and services.

Krugman is known in academia for his work on international economics (including trade theory, economic geography, and international finance), liquidity traps and currency crises. He is the 19th most widely cited economist in the world today.

, Krugman has written 20 books and has published over 200 scholarly articles in professional journals and edited volumes. He has also written more than 750 columns dealing with current economic and political issues for ''The New York Times''.

He also writes on various topics ranging from income distribution to international economics. Krugman considers himself a liberal, calling one of his books and his ''New York Times'' blog "The Conscience of a Liberal". His commentary has attracted considerable comment and criticism.

Personal life

Krugman is the son of David and Anita Krugman and the grandson of Jewish immigrants from Brest-Litovsk. He was born in Albany, NY, and grew up in Nassau County, New York. He graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore. Krugman's first wife was award-winning designer/artist Robin L. Bergman. He is currently married to Robin Wells, his second wife, a yoga instructor and academic economist who has collaborated on textbooks with Krugman. Krugman reports that he is a distant relative of conservative journalist David Frum. He has described himself as a "Loner. Ordinarily shy. Shy with individuals." He lives with his wife in Princeton, New Jersey.

According to Krugman, his interest in economics began with Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' novels, in which the social scientists of the future use "psychohistory" to attempt to save civilization. Since "psychohistory" in Asimov's sense of the word does not exist, Krugman turned to economics, which he considered the next best thing.

Academic career

Krugman earned his B.A. in economics from Yale University ''summa cum laude'' in 1974 and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. While at MIT he was part of a small group of MIT students sent to work for the Central Bank of Portugal for three months in summer 1976, in the chaotic aftermath of the Carnation Revolution. From 1982 to 1983, he spent a year working at the Reagan White House as a staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers. He taught at Yale University, MIT, UC Berkeley, the London School of Economics, and Stanford University before joining Princeton University in 2000 as professor of economics and international affairs. He is also currently a centenary professor at the London School of Economics, and a member of the Group of Thirty international economic body. He has been a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research since 1979. Most recently, Krugman was President of the Eastern Economic Association.

Paul Krugman has written extensively on international economics, including international trade, economic geography, and international finance. The Research Papers in Economics project ranked him as the 14th most influential economist in the world as of March 2011 based on his academic contributions. Krugman's ''International Economics: Theory and Policy'', co-authored with Maurice Obstfeld, is a standard undergraduate textbook on international economics. He is also co-author, with Robin Wells, of an undergraduate economics text which he says was strongly inspired by the first edition of Paul Samuelson's classic textbook. Krugman also writes on economic topics for the general public, sometimes on international economic topics but also on income distribution and public policy.

The Nobel Prize Committee stated that Krugman's main contribution is his analysis of the impact of economies of scale, combined with the assumption that consumers appreciate diversity, on international trade and on the location of economic activity. The importance of spatial issues in economics has been enhanced by Krugman's ability to popularize this complicated theory with the help of easy-to-read books and state-of-the-art syntheses. "Krugman was beyond doubt the key player in 'placing geographical analysis squarely in the economic mainstream' ... and in conferring it the central role it now assumes."

In 1978, Krugman wrote ''The Theory of Interstellar Trade'', a tongue-in-cheek essay on computing interest rates on goods in transit near the speed of light. He says he wrote it to cheer himself up when he was "an oppressed assistant professor".

New trade theory

Prior to Krugman's work, trade theory (see David Ricardo and Hecksher-Ohlin model) emphasized trade based on the comparative advantage of countries with very different characteristics, such as a country with a high agricultural productivity trading agricultural products for industrial products from a country with a high industrial productivity. However, in the 20th century, an ever larger share of trade occurred between countries with very similar characteristics, which is difficult to explain by comparative advantage. Krugman's explanation of trade between similar countries was proposed in a 1979 paper in the ''Journal of International Economics'', and involves two key assumptions: that consumers prefer a diverse choice of brands, and that production favors economies of scale. Consumers' preference for diversity explains the survival of different versions of cars like Volvo and BMW. But because of economies of scale, it is not profitable to spread the production of Volvos all over the world; instead, it is concentrated in a few factories and therefore in a few countries (or maybe just one). This logic explains how each country may specialize in producing a few brands of any given type of product, instead of specializing in different types of products.

Many models of international trade now follow Krugman's lead, incorporating economies of scale in production and a preference for diversity in consumption. This way of modeling trade has come to be called New Trade Theory.

Krugman's theory also took into account transportation costs, a key feature in producing the "home market effect", which would later feature in his work on the new economic geography. The home market effect "states that, ceteris paribus, the country with the larger demand for a good shall, at equilibrium, produce a more than proportionate share of that good and be a net exporter of it." The home market effect was an unexpected result, and Krugman initially questioned it, but ultimately concluded that the mathematics of the model were correct.

When there are economies of scale in production, it is possible that countries may become 'locked in' to disadvantageous patterns of trade. Nonetheless, trade remains beneficial in general, even between similar countries, because it permits firms to save on costs by producing at a larger, more efficient scale, and because it increases the range of brands available and sharpens the competition between firms. Krugman has usually been supportive of free trade and globalization. He has also been critical of industrial policy, which New Trade Theory suggests might offer nations rent-seeking advantages if "strategic industries" can be identified, saying it's not clear that such identification can be done accurately enough to matter.

New economic geography

It took an interval of eleven years, but ultimately Krugman's work on New Trade Theory (NTT) converged to what is usually called the "new economic geography" (NEG), which Krugman began to develop in a seminal 1991 paper in the ''Journal of Political Economy''. In Krugman's own words, the passage from NTT to NEG was "obvious in retrospect; but it certainly took me a while to see it. ... The only good news was that nobody else picked up that $100 bill lying on the sidewalk in the interim." This would become Krugman's most-cited academic paper: by early 2009, it had 857 citations, more than double his second-ranked paper. Krugman called the paper "the love of my life in academic work."

The "home market effect" that Krugman discovered in NTT also features in NEG, which interprets agglomeration "as the outcome of the interaction of increasing returns, trade costs and factor price differences." If trade is largely shaped by economies of scale, as Krugman's trade theory argues, then those economic regions with most production will be more profitable and will therefore attract even more production. That is, NTT implies that instead of spreading out evenly around the world, production will tend to concentrate in a few countries, regions, or cities, which will become densely populated but will also have higher levels of income.

International finance

Krugman has also been influential in the field of international finance. As a graduate student, Krugman visited the Federal Reserve Board, where Stephen Salant and Dale Henderson were completing their discussion paper on speculative attacks in the gold market. Krugman adapted their model for the foreign exchange market, resulting in a 1979 paper on currency crises in the ''Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking'', which showed that fixed exchange rate regimes are unlikely to end smoothly: instead, they end in a sudden speculative attack. Krugman's paper is considered one of the main contributions to the 'first generation' of currency crisis models, and it is his second-most-cited paper (457 citations as of early 2009).

In response to the global financial crisis of 2008, Krugman proposed, in an informal "mimeo" style of publication, an "international finance multiplier", to help explain the unexpected speed with which the global crisis had occurred. He argued that when, "highly leveraged financial institutions [HLIs], which do a lot of cross-border investment [....] lose heavily in one market [...] they find themselves undercapitalized, and have to sell off assets across the board. This drives down prices, putting pressure on the balance sheets of other HLIs, and so on." Such a rapid contagion had hitherto been considered unlikely because of "decoupling" in a globalized economy. He first announced that he was working on such a model on his blog, on October 5, 2008. Within days of its appearance, it was being discussed on some popular economics-oriented blogs. The note was soon being cited in papers (draft and published) by other economists, even though it had not itself been through ordinary peer review processes.

Macroeconomics and fiscal policy

Krugman has done much to revive discussion of the liquidity trap as a topic in economics. He recommended aggressive fiscal policy to counter Japan's lost decade in the 1990s, arguing that the country was mired in a Keynesian liquidity trap. The debate he started at that time over liquidity traps and what policies best address them continues in the economics literature.

Krugman had argued in ''The Return of Depression Economics'' that Japan was in a liquidity trap in the late 1990s, since the central bank could not drop interest rates any lower to escape economic stagnation. The core of Krugman's policy proposal for addressing Japan's liquidity trap was inflation targeting, which, he argued "most nearly approaches the usual goal of modern stabilization policy, which is to provide adequate demand in a clean, unobtrusive way that does not distort the allocation of resources." The proposal appeared first in a web posting on his academic site. This mimeo-draft was soon cited, but was also misread by some as repeating his earlier advice that Japan's best hope was in "turning on the printing presses", as recommended by Milton Friedman, John Makin, and others.

Krugman has since drawn parallels between Japan's 'lost decade' and the late 2000s recession, arguing that expansionary fiscal policy is necessary as the major industrialized economies are mired in a liquidity trap. In response to economists who point out that the Japanese economy recovered despite not pursuing his policy prescriptions, Krugman maintains that it was an export-led boom that pulled Japan out of its economic slump in the late-90s, rather than reforms of the financial system.

Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences

Krugman was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (informally the Nobel Prize in Economics), the sole recipient for 2008. This prize includes an award of about $1.4 million and was given to Krugman for his work associated with New Trade Theory and the New Economic Geography. In the words of the prize committee, "By having integrated economies of scale into explicit general equilibrium models, Paul Krugman has deepened our understanding of the determinants of trade and the location of economic activity."

Awards

1991, American Economic Association, John Bates Clark Medal. Since it was awarded to only one person, once every two years (prior to 2009), ''The Economist'' has described the Clark Medal as 'slightly harder to get than a Nobel prize'. 1992, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). 1995, Adam Smith Award of the National Association for Business Economics

1998, Doctor ''honoris causa'' in Economics awarded by Free University of Berlin Freie Universität Berlin in Germany

2000, H.C. Recktenwald Prize in Economics, awarded by University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany.

2002, ''Editor and Publisher'', Columnist of the Year. 2004, Fundación Príncipe de Asturias (Spain), Prince of Asturias Awards in Social Sciences. 2004, Doctor of Humane Letters ''honoris causa'', Haverford College 2008, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (informally the Nobel Prize in Economics) for Krugman's contributions to New Trade Theory. He became the twelfth John Bates Clark Medal winner to be awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize. 2012, Doctor honoris causa from the Universidade de Lisboa, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa and Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Author

In the 1990s, besides academic books and textbooks, Krugman increasingly began writing books for a general audience on issues he considered important for public policy. In ''The Age of Diminished Expectations'' (1990), he wrote in particular about the increasing US income inequality in the "New Economy" of the 1990s. He attributes the rise in income inequality in part to changes in technology, but principally to a change in political atmosphere which he attributes to Movement Conservatives.

In September 2003, Krugman published a collection of his columns under the title, ''The Great Unraveling'', about the Bush administration's economic and foreign policies and the US economy in the early 2000s. His columns argued that the large deficits during that time were generated by the Bush administration as a result of decreasing taxes on the rich, increasing public spending, and fighting the Iraq war. Krugman wrote that these policies were unsustainable in the long run and would eventually generate a major economic crisis. The book was a best-seller.

In 2007, Krugman published ''The Conscience of a Liberal,'' whose title references Barry Goldwater's ''Conscience of a Conservative''. It details the history of wealth and income gaps in the United States in the 20th century. The book describes how the gap between rich and poor declined greatly in middle of the century, and then widened in the last two decades to levels higher even than in the 1920s. In ''Conscience'', Krugman argues that government policies played a much greater role than commonly thought both in reducing inequality in the 1930s through 1970s and in increasing it in the 1980s through the present, and criticizes the Bush administration for implementing policies that Krugman believes widened the gap between the rich and poor.

Krugman also argued that Republicans owed their electoral successes to their ability to exploit the race issue to win political dominance of the South. Krugman argues that Ronald Reagan had used the "Southern Strategy" to signal sympathy for racism without saying anything overtly racist, citing as an example Reagan's coining of the term "welfare queen".

In his book, Krugman proposed a "new New Deal", which included placing more emphasis on social and medical programs and less on national defense. Liberal journalist and author Michael Tomasky argued that in ''The Conscience of a Liberal'' Krugman is committed "to accurate history even when some fudging might be in order for the sake of political expediency." In a review for ''The New York Times'', Pulitzer prize-winning historian David M. Kennedy stated, "Like the rants of Rush Limbaugh or the films of Michael Moore, Krugman's shrill polemic may hearten the faithful, but it will do little to persuade the unconvinced".

In late 2008, Krugman published a substantial updating of an earlier work, entitled "The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008". In the book, he discusses the failure of the United States regulatory system to keep pace with a financial system increasingly out-of-control, and the causes of and possible ways to contain the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s.

Commentator

Since then, economist J. Peter Neary has noted that Krugman "has written on a wide range of topics, always combining one of the best prose styles in the profession with an ability to construct elegant, insightful and useful models." Neary added that "no discussion of his work could fail to mention his transition from Academic Superstar to Public Intellectual. Through his extensive writings, including a regular column for ''The New York Times'', monographs and textbooks at every level, and books on economics and current affairs for the general public ... he has probably done more than any other writer to explain economic principles to a wide audience." Krugman has been described as the most controversial economist in his generation and according to Michael Tomasky since 1992 he has moved "from being a center-left scholar to being a liberal polemicist."

From the mid-1990s onwards, Krugman wrote for ''Fortune'' (1997–99) and ''Slate'' (1996–99), and then for ''The Harvard Business Review'', ''Foreign Policy'', ''The Economist'', ''Harper's'', and ''Washington Monthly''. In this period Krugman critiqued various positions commonly taken on economic issues from across the political spectrum, from protectionism and opposition to the World Trade Organization on the left to supply side economics on the right.

During the 1992 presidential campaign Krugman praised Bill Clinton's economic plan in ''The New York Times'', and Clinton's campaign used some of Krugman's work on income inequality. At the time, it was considered likely that Clinton would offer him a position in the new administration, but allegedly Krugman's volatility and outspokenness caused Clinton to look elsewhere. Krugman later said that he was "temperamentally unsuited for that kind of role. You have to be very good at people skills, biting your tongue when people say silly things." In a Fresh Dialogues interview, Krugman added, "you have to be reasonably organized...I can move into a pristine office and within three days it will look like a grenade went off."

In 1999, near the height of the dot com boom, ''The New York Times'' approached Krugman to write a bi-weekly column on "the vagaries of business and economics in an age of prosperity." His first columns in 2000 addressed business and economic issues, but as the 2000 US presidential campaign progressed, Krugman increasingly focused on George W. Bush's policy proposals. According to Krugman, this was partly due to "the silence of the media - those 'liberal media' conservatives complain about...." Krugman accused Bush of repeatedly misrepresenting his proposals, and criticized the proposals themselves. After Bush's election, and his perseverance with his proposed tax cut in the midst of the slump (which Krugman argued would do little to help the economy but substantially raise the fiscal deficit), Krugman's columns grew angrier and more focused on the administration. As Alan Blinder put it in 2002, "There's been a kind of missionary quality to his writing since then ... He's trying to stop something now, using the power of the pen." Partly as a result, Krugman's twice-weekly column on the Op-Ed page of ''The New York Times'' has made him, according to Nicholas Confessore, "the most important political columnist in America... he is almost alone in analyzing the most important story in politics in recent years – the seamless melding of corporate, class, and political party interests at which the Bush administration excels." In an interview in late 2009, Krugman said his missionary zeal had changed in the post-Bush era and he described the Obama administration as "good guys but not as forceful as I'd like...When I argue with them in my column this is a serious discussion. We really are in effect speaking across the transom here." Krugman says he's more effective at driving change outside the administration than inside it, "now, I'm trying to make this progressive moment in American history a success. So that's where I'm pushing."

Krugman's columns have drawn criticism as well as praise. A 2003 article in ''The Economist'' questioned Krugman's "growing tendency to attribute all the world's ills to George Bush," citing critics who felt that "his relentless partisanship is getting in the way of his argument" and claiming errors of economic and political reasoning in his columns. Daniel Okrent, a former ''The New York Times'' ombudsman, in his farewell column, criticized Krugman for what he said was "the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults."

Krugman's New York Times blog is "The Conscience of a Liberal," devoted largely to economics and politics.

Five days after 9/11 terrorist attacks Krugman argued in his column that calamity was "partly self-inflicted" due to transfer of responsibility for airport security from government to airlines. His column provoked an angry response and ''The New York Times'' was flooded with complaints. According to Larissa MacFarquhar of ''The New Yorker'', while some people thought that he was too partisan to be a columnist for ''The New York Times'', he was revered on the left. Similarly, on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 on the United States Krugman again provoked a controversy by accusing on his New York Times blog former U.S. President George W. Bush and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani of rushing "to cash in on the horror" after the attacks and describing the anniversary as "an occasion for shame".

East Asian growth

In a 1994 ''Foreign Affairs'' article, Paul Krugman argued that it was a myth that the economic successes of the East Asian 'tigers' constituted an economic miracle. He argued that their rise was fueled by mobilizing resources and that their growth rates would inevitably slow. His article helped popularize the argument made by Lawrence Lau and Alwyn Young, among others, that the growth of economies in East Asia was not the result of new and original economic models, but rather from high capital investment and increasing labor force participation, and that total factor productivity had not increased. Krugman argued that in the long term, only increasing total factor productivity can lead to sustained economic growth. Krugman's article was highly criticized in many Asian countries when it first appeared, and subsequent studies disputed some of Krugman's conclusions. However, it also stimulated a great deal of research, and may have caused the Singapore government to provide incentives for technological progress.

During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Krugman advocated currency controls as a way to mitigate the crisis. Writing in a ''Fortune'' magazine article, he suggested exchange controls as "a solution so unfashionable, so stigmatized, that hardly anyone has dared suggest it." Malaysia was the only country that adopted such controls, and although the Malaysian government credited its rapid economic recovery on currency controls, the relationship is disputed. An empirical study found that the Malaysian policies produced faster economic recovery and smaller declines in employment and real wages. Krugman later stated that the controls might not have been necessary at the time they were applied, but that nevertheless "Malaysia has proved a point—namely, that controlling capital in a crisis is at least feasible." Krugman more recently pointed out that emergency capital controls have even been endorsed by the IMF, and are no longer considered radical policy.

U.S. economic policies

In the early 2000s, Krugman repeatedly criticized the Bush tax cuts, both before and after they were enacted. Krugman argued that the tax cuts enlarged the budget deficit without improving the economy, and that they enriched the wealthy – worsening income distribution in the US. Krugman advocated lower interest rates (to promote spending on housing and other durable goods), and increased government spending on infrastructure, military, and unemployment benefits, arguing that these policies would have a larger stimulus effect, and unlike permanent tax cuts, would only temporarily increase the budget deficit.

In August 2005, after Alan Greenspan expressed concern over housing markets, Krugman criticized Greenspan's earlier reluctance to regulate the mortgage and related financial markets, arguing that "[he's] like a man who suggests leaving the barn door ajar, and then – after the horse is gone – delivers a lecture on the importance of keeping your animals properly locked up."

Krugman has repeatedly expressed his view that Greenspan and Phil Gramm are the two individuals most responsible for causing the subprime crisis. Krugman points to Greenspan and Gramm for the key roles they played in keeping derivatives, financial markets, and investment banks unregulated, and to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed Great Depression era safeguards that prevented commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies from merging.

Krugman has also been critical of some of the Obama administration's economic policies. He has criticized the Obama stimulus plan as being too small and inadequate given the size of the economy and the banking rescue plan as misdirected; Krugman wrote in ''The New York Times'': "an overwhelming majority [of the American public] believes that the government is spending too much to help large financial institutions. This suggests that the administration's money-for-nothing financial policy will eventually deplete its political capital." In particular, he considered the Obama administration's actions to prop up the US financial system in 2009 to be impractical and unduly favorable to Wall Street bankers. In anticipation of President Obama's Job Summit in December 2009, Krugman said in a Fresh Dialogues interview, "This jobs summit can't be an empty exercise…he can't come out with a proposal for $10 or $20 Billion of stuff because people will view that as a joke. There has to be a significant job proposal…I have in mind something like $300 Billion."

Krugman has recently criticized China's exchange rate policy, which he believes to be a significant drag on global economic recovery from the Late-2000s recession, and he has advocated a "surcharge" on Chinese imports to the US in response. Jeremy Warner of ''The Daily Telegraph'' accused Krugman of advocating a return to self-destructive protectionism.

In April 2010, as the Senate began considering new financial regulations, Krugman argued that the regulations should not only regulate financial innovation, but also tax financial-industry profits and remuneration. He cited a paper by Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny released the previous week, which concludes that most innovation was in fact about "providing investors with false substitutes for [traditional] assets like bank deposits," and once investors realize the sheer number of securities that are unsafe a "flight to safety" occurs which necessarily leads to "financial fragility."

In his June 28, 2010 column in ''The New York Times'', in light of the recent G-20 Toronto Summit, Krugman criticized world leaders for agreeing to halve deficits by 2013. Krugman claimed that these efforts could lead the global economy into the early stages of a "third depression" and leave "millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs." He advocated instead the continued stimulus of economies to foster greater growth.

Economic views

Krugman identifies as a Keynesian and a saltwater economist, and he has criticized the freshwater school on macroeconomics. Though he applies New Keynesian theory in some of his work, he has also criticized it for lacking predictive power and for hewing to ideas like the efficient markets hypothesis and rational expectations. Since the 1990s, he has promoted the IS-LM model as invented by John Hicks, pointing out its relative simplicity compared to New Keynesianism and continued currency in practical economic policy.

In the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis he has remarked that he is "gravitating towards a Keynes-Fisher-Minsky view of macroeconomics." Post-Keynesian observers cite commonalities between Krugman's views and those of the Post-Keynesian school. In recent academic work, he has collaborated with Gauti Eggertsson on a New Keynesian model of debt-overhang and debt-driven slumps, inspired by the writings of Irving Fisher, Hyman Minsky, and Richard Koo. Their work argues that during a debt-driven slump, the "paradox of toil", together with the paradox of flexibility, can exacerbate a liquidity trap, reducing demand and employment.

Free trade

Krugman's views on free trade have provoked considerable ire from the anti-globalism movement. He once famously quipped that, "If there were an Economist's Creed, it would surely contain the affirmations 'I understand the Principle of Comparative Advantage' and 'I advocate Free Trade'." However, in the same article, Krugman argues that, given the findings of New Trade Theory, : ... free trade is not passé, but ... has irretrievably lost its innocence. Its status has shifted from optimum to reasonable rule of thumb...it can never again be asserted as the policy that economic theory tells us is always right.

Nevertheless, Krugman declares in favor of free trade given the enormous political costs of actively engaging in strategic trade policy (i.e. rent-seeking) and because there is no clear method for a government to discover which industries will ultimately yield positive returns. In the same article, Krugman expressed that the phenomena of increasing returns (of which strategic trade policy depends) does not disprove the underlying truth behind comparative advantage.

Political views

Krugman describes himself as liberal, and has explained that he views the term "liberal" in the American context to mean "more or less what social democratic means in Europe." In a 2009 ''Newsweek'' article, Evan Thomas described Krugman as having "all the credentials of a ranking member of the East coast liberal establishment" but also as someone who is anti-establishment, a "scourge of the Bush administration," and a critic of the Obama administration. In 1996, ''Newsweek'' [[Michael Hirsh (journalist)|Michael Hirsh ]] remarked "Say this for Krugman: though an unabashed liberal ... he's ideologically colorblind. He savages the supply-siders of the Reagan-Bush era with the same glee as he does the 'strategic traders' of the Clinton administration."

Krugman has advocated free markets in contexts where they are often viewed as controversial. He has written against rent control in favor of supply and demand, likened the opposition against free trade and globalization to the opposition against evolution via natural selection, opposed farm subsidies, argued that sweatshops are preferable to unemployment, dismissed the case for living wages, argued against mandates, subsidies, and tax breaks for ethanol, and questioned NASA's manned space flights. Krugman has also criticized U.S. zoning laws and European labor market regulation.

U.S. race relations

Krugman has repeatedly criticized the Republican Party leadership for what he sees as a strategic (but largely tacit) reliance on racial divisions. In his ''Conscience of a Liberal'', he wrote

Krugman also defended Glenn Loury, a conservative black economist at Brown University, who defied many African-American political leaders by arguing that "The problems facing African-Americans had changed. The biggest barrier to progress was no longer active racism of whites but internal social problems of the black community."

On working in the Reagan administration

Krugman worked for Martin Feldstein when the latter was appointed chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan. He later wrote in an autobiographical essay, "It was, in a way, strange for me to be part of the Reagan Administration. I was then and still am an unabashed defender of the welfare state, which I regard as the most decent social arrangement yet devised." Krugman found the time "thrilling, then disillusioning". He did not fit into the Washington political environment, and was not tempted to stay on.

On Gordon Brown vs David Cameron

Although Krugman includes Gordon Brown among those he considers at fault for the Late-2000s financial crisis, he has also praised the former British Prime Minister, whom he described as "more impressive than any US politician" after a three-hour conversation with him. Krugman asserted that Brown "defined the character of the worldwide financial rescue effort" and urged British voters not to support the opposition Conservative Party in the 2010 General Election, arguing their Party Leader David Cameron "has had little to offer other than to raise the red flag of fiscal panic."

Controversies

Partisanship

In a 2003 article, ''The Economist'' noted that Krugman's critics argue that "his relentless partisanship is getting in the way of his argument". ''The Economist'' also wrote that the vast majority of Krugman's columns feature attacks on Republicans and almost none criticize Democrats, making him "a sort of ivory-tower folk-hero of the American left—a thinking person's Michael Moore".

Libertarian conservative and federal appeals court judge Richard Posner called Krugman "an unabashed Democratic partisan who often goes overboard in his hatred of the Republicans."

Liberal journalist and author Michael Tomasky in ''The New York Review of Books'' stated "Many liberals would name Paul Krugman of The New York Times as perhaps the most consistent and courageous—and unapologetic—liberal partisan in American journalism." ''New York Magazine'' called Krugman "the leading exponent of a kind of liberal purism", while liberal historian Michael Kazin has opined that Krugman’s account of the right succumbed to the Marxist flaw of false consciousness.

Economics and policy recommendations

Economist and former United States Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers has stated Krugman has a tendency to favor more extreme policy recommendations because "it’s much more interesting than agreement when you’re involved in commenting on rather than making policy."

According to Harvard professor of economics Robert Barro, Krugman "has never done any work in Keynesian macroeconomics" and makes arguments that are politically convenient for him. Nobel laureate Edward Prescott charged that Krugman "doesn't command respect in the profession", as "no respectable macroeconomist" believes that economic stimulus works.

Enron

In early 1999, Krugman served on an advisory panel (including Larry Lindsey and Robert Zoellick) that offered Enron executives briefings on economic and political issues. He resigned from the panel in the fall of 1999 to comply with ''The New York Times'' rules regarding conflicts of interest, when he accepted the ''Times'' offer to become an op-ed columnist. Krugman later stated that he was paid $37,500 (not $50,000 as often reported - his early resignation cost him part of his fee), and that, for consulting that required him to spend four days in Houston, the fee was "rather low compared with my usual rates", which were around $20,000 for a one-hour speech. He also stated that the advisory panel "had no function that I was aware of", and that he later interpreted his role as being "just another brick in the wall" Enron used to build an image.

When the story of Enron's corporate scandals broke two years later, Krugman was accused of unethical journalism, specifically of having a conflict of interest. Some of his critics claimed that "The Ascent of E-man," an article Krugman wrote for Fortune magazine about the rise of the market as illustrated by Enron's energy trading, was biased by Krugman's earlier consulting work for them. Krugman later argued that "The Ascent of E-Man" was in character, writing "I have always been a free-market Keynesian: I like free markets, but I want some government supervision to correct market failures and ensure stability." Krugman noted his previous relationship with Enron in that article and in other articles he wrote on the company. Krugman was one of the first to argue that deregulation of the California energy market had led to market manipulation by energy companies.

Contradictions

Paul Krugman has been frequently accused of contradicting himself and having at some point of time supported the positions of his opponents. Krugman's supporters argue that these criticisms are from his political opponents and the critics argue that the contradictions are documented.

According to the wiki on Mises Institute, an Austrian school think-tank, Krugman has garnered a reputation for contradicting himself on many occasions. When documenting such inconsistencies several writers have made references to such an occurrence being commonplace: "It's not newsworthy when Paul Krugman contradicts himself." "Not that you needed any more evidence that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is a flip-flopping charlatan..." "This just in: New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is a raging hypocrite. You'll be shocked to find out, I'm sure."

In addition to the instance reported in the WSJ (see above), a single article published in the conservative online magazine ''The American Thinker'' documents Krugman making contradictory statements in a wide variety of topics. He is documented as stating that when deficits are high interest rates are low, and when governments run up a deficit, interest rates rise. He argued that higher national debt and spending were bad for people early in their careers, as they would have to pay for it later in life, and nearly twenty-five years later, he argues that the national debt is not a problem, as it never needs to be paid off. Krugman argued it is not the debt that matters, but rather the debt-to-GDP ratio. But in an open letter to Alan Greenspan he asserted, "...you obviously realize that the ratio of debt to G.D.P. is a highly misleading number." He has argued that Social Security is sustainable and unsustainable, opposed government-run health care before supporting government-run health care, and opposed the bailout of Fannie Mae before congratulating the government for the bailout of Fannie Mae.

Krugman has stated labor unions and higher wages cause unemployment, as well as stating labor unions create a stable middle class, and lower wages have a contractionary effect on the economy (which is characterized in part by unemployment). He has argued that governments do not cause recessions and are not responsible for business cycles, but he also blames the Bush administration for the current recession. Krugman claimed that nothing the government has done has had an impact on the economy, and states that government actions are like using a water pistol to shoot an elephant -- but he also claims that "big government" saved the economy. He declared that workers' fears of losing jobs to workers in China and India due to globalization aren't irrational, when he earlier stated that those who blamed the global economy for the loss of jobs were "silly."

In popular culture

Krugman appears as himself in a cameo in the 2010 comedy film ''Get Him to the Greek''. In the Loudon Wainwright III song "The Krugman Blues" on the 2010 album ''10 Songs for the New Depression'', Wainwright describes reading Krugman's articles in ''The New York Times''.

Published works

Academic books (authored or coauthored)

''The Spatial Economy – Cities, Regions and International Trade'' (July 1999), with Masahisa Fujita and Anthony Venables. MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-06204-6

''The Self Organizing Economy'' (February 1996), ISBN 1-55786-698-8

''EMU and the Regions'' (December 1995), with Guillermo de la Dehesa. ISBN 1-56708-038-3

''Development, Geography, and Economic Theory (Ohlin Lectures)'' (September 1995), ISBN 0-262-11203-5

''Foreign Direct Investment in the United States (3rd Edition)'' (February 1995), with Edward M. Graham. ISBN 0-88132-204-0

''World Savings Shortage'' (September 1994), ISBN 0-88132-161-3

''What Do We Need to Know About the International Monetary System? (Essays in International Finance, No 190 July 1993)'' ISBN 0-88165-097-8

''Currencies and Crises'' (June 1992), ISBN 0-262-11165-9

''Geography and Trade (Gaston Eyskens Lecture Series)'' (August 1991), ISBN 0-262-11159-4

''The Risks Facing the World Economy'' (July 1991), with Guillermo de la Dehesa and Charles Taylor. ISBN 1-56708-073-1

''Has the Adjustment Process Worked? (Policy Analyses in International Economics, 34)'' (June 1991), ISBN 0-88132-116-8

''Rethinking International Trade'' (April 1990), ISBN 0-262-11148-9

''Trade Policy and Market Structure'' (March 1989), with Elhanan Helpman. ISBN 0-262-08182-2

''Exchange-Rate Instability (Lionel Robbins Lectures)'' (November 1988), ISBN 0-262-11140-3

''Adjustment in the World Economy'' (August 1987) ISBN 1-56708-023-5

''Market Structure and Foreign Trade: Increasing Returns, Imperfect Competition, and the International Economy'' (May 1985), with Elhanan Helpman. ISBN 0-262-08150-4

Academic books (edited or coedited)

''Currency Crises (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)'' (September 2000), ISBN 0-226-45462-2

''Trade with Japan : Has the Door Opened Wider? (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report)'' (March 1995), ISBN 0-226-45459-2

''Empirical Studies of Strategic Trade Policy (National Bureau of Economic Research Project Report)'' (April 1994), co-edited with Alasdair Smith. ISBN 0-226-45460-6

''Exchange Rate Targets and Currency Bands'' (October 1991), co-edited with Marcus Miller. ISBN 0-521-41533-0

''Strategic Trade Policy and the New International Economics'' (January 1986), ISBN 0-262-11112-8

Economics textbooks

''Economics: European Edition'' (Spring 2007), with Robin Wells and Kathryn Graddy. ISBN 0-7167-9956-1

''Macroeconomics'' (February 2006), with Robin Wells. ISBN 0-7167-6763-5

''Economics'', first edition (December 2005), with Robin Wells. ISBN 1-57259-150-1

''Economics'', second edition (2009), with Robin Wells. ISBN 0-7167-7158-6

''Microeconomics'' (March 2004), with Robin Wells. ISBN 0-7167-5997-7

''International Economics: Theory and Policy'', with Maurice Obstfeld. 7th Edition (2006), ISBN 0-321-29383-5; 1st Edition (1998), ISBN 0-673-52186-9

Books for a general audience

''End This Depression Now!'' (April 2012) ISBN 0-393-08877-4

*A call for stimulative expansionary policy and an end to austerity

''The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008'' (December 2008) ISBN 0-393-07101-4

*An updated version of his previous work.

''The Conscience of a Liberal'' (October 2007) ISBN 0-393-06069-1

''The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century'' (September 2003) ISBN 0-393-05850-6

*A book of his ''The New York Times'' columns, many deal with the economic policies of the Bush administration or the economy in general.

''Fuzzy Math: The Essential Guide to the Bush Tax Plan'' (May 4, 2001) ISBN 0-393-05062-9

''The Return of Depression Economics'' (May 1999) ISBN 0-393-04839-X

*Considers the long economic stagnation of Japan through the 1990s, the Asian financial crisis, and problems in Latin America.

* ''The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008'' (December 2008) ISBN 0-393-07101-4

''The Accidental Theorist and Other Dispatches from the Dismal Science'' (May 1998) ISBN 0-393-04638-9

*Essay collection, primarily from Krugman's writing for ''Slate''.

''Pop Internationalism'' (March 1996) ISBN 0-262-11210-8

*Essay collection, covering largely the same ground as ''Peddling Prosperity''.

''Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations'' (April 1995) ISBN 0-393-31292-5

*History of economic thought from the first rumblings of revolt against Keynesian economics to the present, for the layman.

''The Age of Diminished Expectations: U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s'' (1990) ISBN 0-262-11156-X

* A "briefing book" on the major policy issues around the economy.

* Revised and Updated, January 1994, ISBN 0-262-61092-2

* Third Edition, August 1997, ISBN 0-262-11224-8

Selected academic articles

(1998) 'It's Baaack: Japan's Slump and the Return of the Liquidity Trap' ''Brookings Papers on Economic Activity'' 1998, pp. 137–205.

(1996) 'Are currency crises self-fulfilling?' ''NBER Macroeconomics Annual'' 11, pp. 345–78.

(1995)

(1991) 'Increasing returns and economic geography'. ''Journal of Political Economy'' 99, pp. 483–99.

(1991)

(1991) 'History versus expectations'. ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'' 106 (2), pp. 651–67.

(1981) 'Intra-industry specialization and the gains from trade'. ''Journal of Political Economy'' 89, pp. 959–73.

(1980) 'Scale economies, product differentiation, and the pattern of trade'. ''American Economic Review'' 70, pp. 950–59.

(1979) 'A model of balance-of-payments crises'. ''Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking'' 11, pp. 311–25.

(1979) 'Increasing returns, monopolistic competition, and international trade'. ''Journal of International Economics'' 9, pp. 469–79.

See also

Capitol Hill Baby-Sitting Co-op, popularized in Krugman's book, ''Peddling Prosperity''

List of economists

List of Jewish Nobel laureates

List of newspaper columnists

References

External links

Profile and column archive at ''The New York Times''

* The Conscience of a Liberal blog

KrugmanOnline.com features books by Paul Krugman, a custom search engine, and aggregated content from the web.

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Archive contains nearly all his pre-Times Select articles

Paul Krugman (MIT) archives of his Slate and Fortune columns plus other writings 1996-2000

The Increasing Returns Revolution in Trade and Geography 2008 lecture at NobelPrize.org

Profile and Papers at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc

Publications at the National Bureau of Economic Research

Video: Open Mind Interview, 2002: Part One, 2002,Part Two

Audio: The New Class War In America featuring Amy Goodman, Paul Krugman, Greg Palast and Randi Rhodes recorded on June 13, 2006 at The New York Society for Ethical Culture, mp3 format, Video: alternate

Video: Paul Krugman speaks at the World Affairs Council - September 2007

Video: The Conscience of a Liberal (November 3, 2007) - lecture from Mr. Krugman's 2007 book tour.

Video of debate/discussion with Paul Krugman and Mario Cuomo on Bloggingheads.tv

How Paul Krugman Found Politics, Larissa MacFarquhar, ''The New Yorker'', March 1, 2010

Paul Krugman's video interview on Big Think

Paul Krugman: Doctor honoris causa by three Portuguese universities – Portugal - Portuguese American Journal

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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.
Occupation	Businessman, politician, philanthropist
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
Religion	Reform Judaism
Blank1	Net worth
Data1	US$22 billion (2012)
Signature	Michael Bloomberg Signature.svg
Website	}}

Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $22 billion in 2012, he is also the 11th-richest person in the United States. He is the founder and 88% owner of Bloomberg L.P., a financial news and information services media company.

A 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 family was Jewish. His father, William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), was a real estate agent, and the son of Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, an immigrant. His mother, Charlotte Rubens Bloomberg, was born on January 2, 1909, in New Jersey, the daughter of a Russian-born 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 to Brookline, Massachusetts, for the next two years, finally settling in Medford, a Boston suburb, where he lived until after he graduated from college. Bloomberg is also an Eagle Scout.

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 in electrical engineering. Later he received his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Business career

In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, a bulge-bracket, Wall Street investment bank, where he headed equity trading, and later, systems development. In 1981, Salomon Brothers was bought, and Bloomberg was fired from the investment bank and given a $10 million severance package. Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. His business plan was based on the realization that Wall Street (and the financial community generally) was willing to pay for high quality business information delivered as quickly as possible and in as many usable forms as technically possible (such as graphs of highly specific trends).

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 says that he 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'' asserted that he was often seen 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 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 $19.5 billion, ranking 12th in the Forbes 400 and 30th in the world. As of 2012, Forbes ranks his fortune at $22 billion.

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 of 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. Some have seen this approach to the New York education system as largely unsuccessful because of skewed numbers. Under the reformed approach, a school must do better than the previous year to receive funding. Because of this requirement, many successful schools were closed for being "unsuccessful" because of their inability to raise test scores, even though they were the top performing schools, while many unsuccessful schools received the bulk of funding for simply raising their scores slightly.

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 opposed a timeline for withdrawal from the Iraq War, and criticized those who favored 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. Bloomberg has been cited for not allowing many emergency officials at the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks to attend the tenth anniversary observation of this day. He also is at odds with many around the United States for not allowing prayer at the ceremony marking the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

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 "Government shouldn't tell you whom to marry."

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.

On November 15, 2011, some Occupy Wall Street protesters in Zucotti Park were arrested after Bloomberg ordered sanitation crews to go in and clean up the park. Protesters were told they could return after the park was clean, but without sleeping bags, tents, or tarps.

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

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. 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

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 Bloomberg as the best hope for a serious third party Presidential Candidate in 2012.

Personal life

Bloomberg married Yorkshire-born Susan Brown in 1975. Together, they had 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 in 1993 and is currently living with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.

Bloomberg pilots an AW109 helicopter, and is near the top of the waiting list for an AW609 tiltrotor aircraft.

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.

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 richest American politicians

List of philanthropists

References

;Notes

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:Living people Category:American aviators Category:American billionaires Category:American company founders 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: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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Birth name	Lloyd Craig Blankfein
birth date	September 20, 1954
birth place	Bronx, New York, USA
alma mater	Harvard College Harvard Law School
office	Chairman & CEO of Goldman Sachs
Term start	2006
predecessor	Henry Paulson
salary	US$ 600,000 (''2010'')Total: US$ 13,200,000 (''2010'')
nationality	American
religion	Judaism
residence	New York City, New York
boards	Rockefeller family's Asia SocietyRobin Hood Foundation
spouse	Laura Jacobs Blankfein }}

Lloyd Craig Blankfein (born September 20, 1954) is an American business executive. He is currently the CEO and Chairman of Goldman Sachs. He has been in this position since the May 31, 2006 nomination of former CEO Henry Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury under George W. Bush.

Life and career

Blankfein was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a Jewish family and reared in Brooklyn's Linden Houses, part of the New York City Housing Authority. His father was a clerk with the U.S. Postal Service branch in the Manhattan borough of New York City and his mother was a receptionist. As a boy, he worked as a concession vendor at Yankee Stadium. He received primary and secondary education in the public schools of the New York City Department of Education, and was the valedictorian at Thomas Jefferson High School in 1971. He attended Harvard College, where he lived in Winthrop House, and earned his A.B. in 1975. In 1978, Blankfein received a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

Blankfein worked as a corporate tax lawyer for the law firm Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. In 1981, he joined Goldman's commodities trading arm, J. Aron & Co., as a precious metals salesman in its London office.

He is the Gala Chairman of the Rockefeller family's Asia Society in New York. He serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization seeking to alleviate poverty in New York, as well as on the Board of Overseers of Weill Cornell Medical College.

Goldman CEO

Blankfein earned a total of $54.4 million in 2006 as one of the highest paid executives on Wall Street. His bonus reflected the performance of Goldman Sachs, which reported record net earnings of $9.5 billion. The compensation included a cash bonus of $27.3 million, with the rest paid in stock and options. While CEO of Goldman Sachs Group in 2007, Blankfein earned a total compensation of $53,965,418, which included a base salary of $600,000, a cash bonus of $26,985,474, stocks granted of $15,542,756 and options granted of $10,453,031.

Blankfein was named as one of "The Most Outrageous CEOs of 2009" by ''Forbes'' magazine. Taking a different position, ''Financial Times'', which named Blankfein as its "2009 Person of the Year," stated: "His bank has stuck to its strengths, unashamedly taken advantage of the low interest rates and diminished competition resulting from the crisis to make big trading profits." Critics of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street have taken issue with those practices.

On January 13, 2010, Blankfein testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, that he considered Goldman Sachs's role as primarily a market maker, not a creator of the product (''i.e.'', subprime mortgage-related securities). Goldman Sachs was sued on April 16, 2010 by the SEC for the fraudulent selling of a Synthetic CDO tied to subprime mortgages, a product which Goldman Sachs had created.

With Blankfein at the helm, Goldman has also been criticized "by lawmakers and pundits for issues from its pay practices to its role in helping Greece mask the size of its debts." Blankfein testified before Congress in April 2010 at a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He said that Goldman Sachs had no moral or legal obligation to inform its clients it was betting against the products which they were buying from Goldman Sachs because it was not acting in a fiduciary role.

In August 2011, Goldman confirmed that Blankfein had hired high-profile lawyer Reid Weingarten. Weingarten has represented executives including former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers and former Enron accounting officer Richard Causey.

Politics

Blankfein is a contributor to mostly Democratic party candidates and donated $4,600 to Democratic Party candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2007. Goldman employees and their relatives contributed almost a million dollars to Barack Obama's presidential campaign — making it "the company from which Obama raised the most money in 2008" — and Blankfein has visited the White House ten times as of February 2011. Former Goldman executives who hold senior positions in the Obama administration include Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Mark Patterson, a former Goldman lobbyist who is chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and Robert Hormats, the undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs. With regard to his personal political views, Blankfein has described himself as "a registered Democrat, and a Rockefeller Republican ... conservative on fiscal issues and more liberal on social issues".

On April 7, 2009, Blankfein recommended guidelines to overhaul executive compensation. According to ''The New York Times'', he said that lessons from the global financial crisis included the need to "apply basic standards to how we compensate people in our industry."

In November 2009, he declared in an interview, as a banker: "I'm doing God's work." Several days later he indicated that he regretted that remark and said he had intended it as a joke. He also apologized on behalf of Goldman Sachs to the public for unspecified "things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret" and which contributed to the financial and economic crisis. The firm announced a 10,000 Small Businesses initiative, committing $500 million to aid American small businesses.

References

External links

Profile at Goldman Sachs

Profile at ''Bloomberg Businessweek''

Profile at ''Forbes''

Lloyd Blankfein collected news and commentary at ''International Business Times''

*Goldman Runs Risks, Reaps Rewards, ''The New York Times'', June 10, 2007

The Man Goldman Is Banking On 2004 profile from ''BusinessWeek'' magazine

Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category: American Jews Category:American financial businesspeople Category:Chairmen of Goldman Sachs Category:Chief Executive Officers of Goldman Sachs Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:New York lawyers Category:People from New York City

de:Lloyd C. Blankfein fr:Lloyd Blankfein nl:Lloyd Blankfein