Posted: 7/28/2016
During his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Bloomberg made a number of eyebrow raising remarks about his fellow New York billionaire Donald Trump.
He earnestly claimed he knows a con when he sees one. Really? Well, those who can truly tell the difference are con men themselves or are extremely gifted. I suspect this line was intended as a hard hitter like the infamous TV spot against Barry Goldwater accusing Goldwater of being trigger happy with nukes.
It surprises me that Michael Bloomberg’s life and business are as if sanitized clean when you search for negative issues. E.g. the Wikipedia articles on him or his business are clean as can be. Well, I do faintly remember that there were scandals about Bloomberg Terminals in the 1990s something along the lines that Bloomberg price quotes were deliberately used for front running etc.
Well, perhaps Mr. Bloomberg did not have as many lawsuits against his business or his business did not file as many bankruptcies as Mr. Trump. However, Mr. Bloomberg and his money operate behind the curtain to finance a number of issues and to manipulate public opinion. Most famously, he spends large sums of money to undermine the Second Amendment and to promote gun control. As a mayor of New York he became a nanny (e.g. he banned smoking in private bars, sugary drinks, and trans fats). His vacillating between both major parties are famous. What he spent on his mayoral campaigns was stunning (to the tune of $650 million in total of his own money to become and be mayor of NYC and be reelected; source).
Mr. Bloomberg also claimed he that he didn’t need a million dollar check from his father to start his company. Well, it did probably not hurt that Mr. Bloomberg received $10 million as a severance payment in 1981 when Solomon Brothers was acquired (source). It did not hurt either that Merrill Lynch invested $30 million in his new company (source).
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