Twenty Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Michael Bloomberg
By Jim Geraghty
February 26, 2020 4:34 PM
Surveying the life and career of the billionaire presidential contender
1. Bloomberg got his start on the path to corporate titanhood when he was paid $10 million and let go by Salomon Brothers as part of Phibro Corporation’s purchase of the venerable Wall Street firm. In his autobiography, Bloomberg on Bloomberg, he writes that he couldn’t understand why some of his colleagues insisted upon telling their spouses about the deal immediately. “Strict instructions to the contrary notwithstanding, some partners did telephone their wives that Friday night. I thought it was nonsensical to make your spouse a possible leak suspect. What difference would it make if she didn’t know for an extra day?â€
2. In the same book, Bloomberg describes himself as “a member of the ‘never apologize, never explain’ school of management.†But he appears to have softened his stance on apologies since then. Just in the past few months, he has apologized for the stop-and-frisk policy he oversaw as New York City mayor, using disrespectful language about women, using prison workers for telemarketing, and calling Cory Booker “well-spoken.â€
3. When Bloomberg started selling terminals with up-to-the-minute financial data, one of the first clients was the Vatican. “When their electricians seemed to take forever to install the wire needed for our terminal,†Bloomberg writes, “a nun in their funds management office told us she’d have the Pope bless our cabling to make the installation process go more quickly. I don’t know if he did, but the next day the installation was completed.â€
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https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/02/twenty-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-michael-bloomberg/
