"Secret ruler" Bernard Baruch: how the wolf from Wall Street changed the course of history. Baruchs are the main parasites of our planet

American financier, stock trader, and political and statesman. He was an adviser to US Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Born in South Carolina, he was the second of four sons of Simon and Bell Baruch. His father, Simon Baruch (1840-1921), German immigrant Jewish origin immigrated to the USA from Germany in 1855. Being a doctor by profession, he served in the army of the southerners during the Civil War and was one of the founders of physiotherapy.

In 1881, his family moved to New York, where Bernard entered City College (Eng. City College of New York). After graduating, he began working as a broker for A. A. Housman and Company. Bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Engaged in successful speculation in sugar contracts. In 1903 he founded his own brokerage firm at the age of 33 he became a millionaire. Despite the then flourishing practice of creating various trusts to manipulate the market, Baruch conducted all his operations alone. For which he received the nickname "the lone wolf of Wall Street."

Baruch's active penetration into political life began in 1912. With his money, he supported Woodrow Wilson in his presidential company. Baruch contributed $50,000 to the Democratic Fund. In gratitude for this, Wilson appointed him to the department of national defense. During World War I, he became head of the War Industries Board and played a key role in reorienting American industry to the war effort.

After the First World War, he worked in the Supreme Economic Council of the Versailles Conference and was the personal economic adviser to President T. V. Wilson. After Woodrow Wilson, he remained the constant companion of Presidents Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. During World War II, President F. D. Roosevelt appointed Baruch chairman of a rubber shortage committee. In 1943, Baruch became an adviser to the director of the military mobilization department, D. Byrnes.

"Baruch's Plan"

In 1946, Harry Truman appointed Baruch as the US representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. At the first meeting of the Commission, on June 14, 1946, Baruch announced a plan for a total ban on nuclear weapons, which went down in history under the name "Baruch's Plan". It provided that all states conducting research in the nuclear field should exchange relevant information; all nuclear programs must be exclusively peaceful in nature; nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction must be destroyed - to carry out these tasks, it is necessary to create competent international structures that are obliged to control actions individual states. The “Baruch plan” itself is the Acheson-Lilienthal report, to which Baruch made two significant changes: the international atomic energy control body mentioned in the report is not subject to the right of veto of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, and it can also take coercive measures against violators of the rules control bypassing the UN Security Council. Such provisions were fundamentally at odds with the UN Charter and its structure, so the "Baruch Plan" was not adopted. American diplomat and historian B. Bechhofer, who in the 1950s. As part of the US delegations, he took part in disarmament negotiations, said the following about the Baruch Plan: “The approach to the veto contained in the Baruch Plan introduced an extraneous and unnecessary element into the negotiation process, which allowed Soviet Union to take a position that earned him significant support outside his bloc. Baruch's position on the veto is an extreme example of his isolation from the general line. foreign policy USA".

At the same time, the United States went for broke: they offered to give up their nuclear weapons on the condition that other states commit themselves not to produce them and agree to create an adequate control system. The plan was rejected by the USSR. The Soviet representatives explained this by the fact that the United States and its allies dominated the UN, therefore, they could not be trusted. Therefore, the USSR proposed that the US destroy its nuclear weapons BEFORE the rest of the countries set up a control system - this proposal was rejected by the US.

After the failure of the Baruch Plan and the retaliatory Soviet initiative, a nuclear arms race began in Mir.

Additional Information

Bernard Baruch was the first in the world to use the term "cold war" on April 16, 1947, in a speech before the South Carolina House of Representatives to refer to the conflict between the US and the Soviet Union.

Head of family: Bernard Mannes Baruch (1870-1965, lived 94 years).

State: at the time of his death, Bernard Baruch alone possessed a fortune of $1 trillion. What is the capital and composition of the family now, as well as the names of the heirs and managers of the state, is not disclosed.

According to the well-known historian Andrei Fursov, it is the Barukhs who are the No. 1 family in the world ranking table.

"Maybe, financial condition there are fewer of them than the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, - the expert believes. - But the position in the world top is much higher and more serious. It was they who created the Standard Chartered Bank back in 1613. Bank of banks! Exactly 400 years ago."

Bernard Baruch

Bernard Baruch was born in 1870 to a doctor, a German immigrant of Jewish origin, among four other sons. After graduating from City College, he began working at the New York Stock Exchange. In 1903 he founded his own brokerage company. Bernard Baruch became a legendary figure at the age of 33. First, he was already a millionaire, thanks to a successful brokerage business. And secondly, he ran his entire successful brokerage business alone, without merging into trust companies, for which he received the nickname "The Lone Wolf of Wall Street."

This calm, smiling young man was undoubtedly a genius. He built up capital in the face of endless crises in the United States. In the interaction of capital with the government, Baruch saw an opportunity to influence world processes, and therefore already in 1912 he undertook to sponsor the election campaign of the future US President Woodrow Wilson. In gratitude, he received a position in the Department of National Defense. Gradually in the hands of Baruch concentrated decisions on critical issues in national politics and economics.

Beginning with Wilson, Bernard Baruch during his career was an adviser to five American presidents and a great friend of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Baruch oversaw the project to create an atomic bomb, was a co-owner of the US Federal Reserve System, after the war he planned the creation of an "International Government". It was he who introduced the concept of "cold war", which was then used by Churchill. Thanks to him, the dollar became the world's reserve currency after the war.

Bernard Baruch and Winston Churchill

“Baruch wants to rule the world, the Moon, and possibly Jupiter—but we'll see about that,” President Truman wrote in his diary. Bernard Baruch was a real gray eminence of the White House throughout his life.

Some more amazing facts about this extraordinary man. Bernard Baruch was a sociable person and did not hide from people. He loved to walk through the central parks of New York and Washington, talking with residents and soldiers, interested in their opinion about the situation in the country and life in general. The richest man on Earth at that time, the arbiter of world history, moved without visible protection even there. And in official lists the richest people did not appear.

Bernard Baruch with wife Anna Griffin

Bernard Baruch with his daughter Belle

Baruch personally took care of business until old age. By the end of his life, his personal fortune in the form of assets reached a trillion dollars. Controlled by Bernard Baruch (as well as the Schiff, Loeb and Kuhn families, American bankers of Jewish origin) "Standard Chartered Bank", founded 400 years ago, also does not shine in the ratings of the most-most financial institutions peace. At the same time, it covers the activities of the entire financial world and controls all settlements in the world.

In 1965, Bernard Baruch was buried next to his wife in a cemetery on the outskirts of New York. On his grave there is only a modest slab - no high fences, no pretentious monuments. Now try to remember at least one heir to the trillion-dollar fortune of Bernard Baruch. The press does not cover the life and work of any of his children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren. There are no photographs even from Baruch's funeral, in which one could see his future successors. Real big money loves absolute silence.

Baruch B.M. From Wall Street Stock Trader to Influencer politician. Biography of a major American financier, eminence grise of the White House. M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2015.
Original: Bernard M. Baruch. Baruch: My Own Story. New York: Buccaneer Books, 1993.

Recently, quite interesting memoirs of one famous financier and a close adviser to American presidents. His name was Bernard Mannes Baruch. He was very rich and very influential person, nicknamed "the lone wolf of Wall Street", because he preferred to carry out his operations alone (later the film about Jordan Belfort with Leonardo DiCaprio in leading role; I wrote about it at the time).

He was born in the family of Simon Baruch, a doctor from South Carolina, a German Jew by origin. Simon served in the Confederate army during civil war as a military doctor, he was captured several times, took part in the famous battle of Gettysburg. After the war, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, the famous organization that was created by Confederate General Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (after whom he received his name distant relative Forrest Gump, a native of Tennessee and one of the developers of mobile warfare tactics. For the time when his son was writing his memoirs, it looked like something incredible (due to the anti-Semitism of its members). But in those days, the KKK was not what it became in the 20th century (anti-Semitism in the Klan has appeared since the 1920s). The reason for the creation of the organization was the defeat of the South in the Civil War, after which the winners began to elevate the blacks freed from slavery in every possible way and belittle the indigenous white population. During the Reconstruction of the South, the Republicans (then it was a progressive and "for all good" party) used them against the southerners. Negro gangs committed atrocities, killed and robbed. The Baruch brothers (two young boys) had to guard the house with guns in order to be ready to repulse the bandits. The Negroes received voting rights, despite the fact that they often did not have any property and they did not understand the letter from the word at all. However, they were taught in which ballot box to throw the ballot. And once the local white fighters went to the trick - they fired and quietly changed the ballot boxes, after which the blacks threw ballots for the Democrat. Then everything changed, and the Democrats already intercepted the blacks and the methods of managing them for their own purposes (turning into the party “for all that is good”, and the Republicans became conservatives). Then the Latinos and other minorities were added to the blacks. Until recently, this worked, but then came Trump, who, with the help of those who are contemptuously called rednecks and white trash, managed to defeat tolerance and the World Toad ...

The KKK fought against Negro activists, as well as against carpetbaggers (carpetbaggers) who came to the South for profit, who intended to seize property in the losing states in the post-war chaos (they bought cotton plantations for a penny), and fighters for equal rights for whites and blacks. Members of the clan waged terror against them, thereby responding to the excesses and arbitrariness of the unbridled Negroes and their accomplices from among the Republicans. At first, they sent a warning to the victim - oak leaves, or melon or orange seeds (Conan Doyle has a story about this from the Sherlock Holmes cycle “Five Orange Seeds”), suggesting that she get out, and if she did not heed this, then the murder followed. It is also worth noting that, according to Baruch's memoirs, there was no anti-Semitism at all in the South; on the contrary, the Jews were respected members of society, served as officers and soldiers in the Confederate Army (as Simon Baruch, medical assistant in the 3rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, and his brother Herman Baruch, who served in the cavalry) and even held important government posts (as Secretary of State Judah Philip Benjamin, second Jewish senator in US history - in 1852 he was elected to the Senate from Louisiana; the first was elected in 1845 by Florida Senator David Levy Yuli, whose father, Moses Elias Levy, was a cousin and business partner of Phillip Benjamin, Judah's father; Levi Yuli also supported the Confederation). Baruch first encountered anti-Semitism in multi-ethnic New York, where a local boy called him "shini" (an analogue of the Russian "kid").

Most of the memoirs are stories about financial transactions on Wall Street, including also Baruch's advice to novice stock market players. Many well-known and not-so-historical figures pass before us, including bison such as John Pierpont Morgan. Very little has been written about participation in politics, in my opinion, although just here Baruch would have something to talk about. He got into politics when he took part in financing the campaign of Woodrow Wilson (Southern, native of Virginia, son of a Presbyterian minister, supporter of slavery and Confederation, chaplain in the Confederate army, Democrat, lawyer, historian, Ph.D., rector of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey), who in 1912 won a sensational victory over the progressive Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Taft. Roosevelt was a rebel against the party establishment who, having received no nomination from the Big Old Party, created his own Progressive Party (Party Prongs - as a counterweight to the donkeys - Democrats and Elephant Republicans). Taft was just a protege of the establishment and Roosevelt's mistake - he, like Medvedev under Putin, had to guard the presidential chair for 4 years so that Roosevelt could be re-elected in 1912 there were no two terms at all either, it was just a tradition that has been going on since the days of Washington, Roosevelt, who became president after the assassination of McKinley, could well have been re-elected in 1908 for a second term as an elected president, but did not do this and made a serious mistake, which he did not allowed in 1940 by his distant relative Franklin), but Taft did not want to give the Oval Office to Roosevelt, nor did the Republican establishment. And in the end, everyone lost. Moreover, Roosevelt, being a nominee from the third party, took second place, and the incumbent Republican president shamefully lost, taking third place. And Democrat Wilson sat in the White House for the next 8 years. He did not forget the support of Baruch and introduced him to the Office of National Defense. During the First World War, Baruch headed the US Military Industrial Committee, during which he contributed to the development of American industry and the American economy, which won the war quite well - long time being neutral, the United States supplied various military goods to the warring countries and received a good profit. As a result, Wilson was an adviser to six American presidents, regardless of their party affiliation - Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman. The time of their reign fell on the first half of the twentieth century - a very turbulent and tragic time, when thirty World War(1914 - 1945) forever changed the course of history and the picture of the world. And Bernard Baruch became one of those who made history, being behind the scenes of the process.

There are many interesting moments in his memoirs. For example, about Mexico, a country neighboring the United States. Baruch was interested in Mexico as a source of rubber - a strategic military raw material. He visited this country even before the revolution - in 1904. He describes Mexico as a land of striking contrasts. "Porfirio Diaz gathered around him a cohort of extremely literate and subtle people who revolved in a society as refined as in any European capital. But outside the gates of their gardens were millions of day laborers who had almost no chance of a better lot. This order of things could not be preserved for a long time, and we still had to be convinced of this, although at that moment I could not yet foresee this. writes Baruch. He noted the fact that the Mexicans were so frightened by the unexpected US interest in obtaining rubber concessions - they saw this as an excuse to seize the northern territories of the country. The revolution disrupted and put an end to such profitable enterprise, due to the fighting, the factory in Torreon closed. But Baruch believed that the idea itself was wonderful and could have been more successful. It should be noted that the United States has Active participation in the events of the Mexican Revolution. In Mexico at that time there was chaos and anarchy, rampant banditry. Gangs of Mexicans made raids on the territory of the United States with the aim of robbery. In January 1916 the Mexican field commander Pancho Villa killed 16 Americans in Santa Isabel, and two months later attacked Columbus in New Mexico, killing 17 Americans (of which 8 were American servicemen). Then President Wilson sent troops to the area, led by General Pershing. On March 16, the 8,000th expeditionary force entered the territory of a neighboring state and remained there until February 5, 1917. Having inflicted significant damage on the vilistas, they failed to catch their leaders (however, one of his commanders, Candelario Cervantes, was eliminated). During the operation, the Americans lost about 25 people killed, 45 wounded and 24 captured. In this war, a young American officer, Lieutenant of the Cavalry George Smith Patton, who was Pershing's adjutant, distinguished himself (Patton's ancestors came from Virginia, his grandfather and great-uncle were officers of the Confederate army and died in the war).

Trailer for an American film about the events of that time - "They went to Cordura" (1960).

Another one interesting page memoirs - the Belgian Congo and the identity of King Leopold II. Baruch writes about him with reverence, but still quite objectively: "This was outstanding person. When else in young age he realized that the income of his small kingdom could not satisfy his extravagant tastes and grandiose ambitions, then he himself went into business in the interests of his country. By making Belgium a colonial power, Leopold set about addressing both of the shortcomings mentioned above. Through a series of artificial maneuvers, he turned the rich Congo Basin into an alleged independent state Congo, and then brought it under the sovereignty of Belgium. As a financial deal, this operation, carried out under the very noses of England and other powers, would do credit to Morgan, and Rockefeller, and Harriman with Ryan. The richest concessions in the Congo belonged to the Belgian crown. The wealth of the country, especially in the early years, was exploited cruelly. The rubber from the Congo became known as "red rubber", partly because of its color, but mostly because of the blood spilled by the local population in its production. Acts of violence and cruelty were reported by representatives of other powers who did not like the methods of government under Leopold. And despite all the counter-propaganda of the Belgian authorities, who explained this by the intrigues and envy of other nations, I always believed that the "red rubber" deserved its name. By the summer of 1906, Leopold, who was 71 years old, realized that the time had come to change the methods of government in the Congo. Besides, he no longer wanted to ignore public opinion in a world where everyone was unhappy with his attitude towards the natives. Leopold made inquiries as to who was the most successful Catholic capitalist in the United States, and he was given the name of Thomas Fortune Ryan. , who at that time even had his own church in his house ". The king invited Ryan to Brussels and he came to him from Switzerland, where he was at that moment. The American Company in the Congo was formed, as was the International Mining Society of the Congo, called "Forminier" for short. An American company received a concession to search for and develop rubber, and Forminier began to develop the mines and forests of the country. “Leopold was a tough businessman. He owned half the shares in each concession. And if you take into account the "Forminier", the Belgian capitalists of which departed another quarter, then Ryan remained at 25 percent of interest. I can't imagine that anyone but a king, and a very wise king at that, could induce Thomas Fortune Ryan to be content with such a small share of the deal. writes Baruch. Inspired, Ryan, flattered by the patronage of the king himself, returned to the United States and managed to recruit the allies of the Guggenheims, Senator Aldrich (grandfather of Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, US vice president under Gerald Ford, shown in the film "Frida" performed by Edward Norton) and other entrepreneurs, including and Baruch, who, however, "was slow to join the project because he suspected that Leopold's move was intended to disarm those who criticize him in America". According to Ryan, full of enthusiasm, “here, for each of us, there was a chance to become someone like”. And, as it turned out, "Ryan's point about reforming working conditions in the Congo was dropped"(Daniel Guggenheim hesitated to join the project due to the fact that Leopold had bad reputation as an employer, and he put honest relationship with local workers as an indispensable condition for their participation in the business). “Two years of risky research turned out to be useless for the American company in the Congo. True, diamonds were found on the lands owned by Forminier, which turned out to be a big plus for its shares. writes Baruch. But Ryan did not lose faith in activities in the territory of the Congo, because he was invited by the king himself, who offered him to start a business there. “When diamonds were first discovered there, Ryan usually carried a few in his pocket and happily showed them to others, like a boy who shows collected pebbles” .
Of course, Baruch does not ignore the two leaders, comrades-in-arms in the anti-Hitler coalition, with whom he was well acquainted, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. He writes about them, telling in a separate chapter about his Hobkaw estate in South Carolina, where many famous people- politicians, businessmen, actors, journalists, writers and others. But I will tell about Churchill and Roosevelt some other time, as part of my story about these people, and the format of posts in LJ does not allow me to dwell on them now.

A few quotes from the book:

“Most of the misconceptions about profit motivation common in underdeveloped countries are based on the false premise authored by Karl Marx that imperialism is something inherent in the capitalist economy. In many of these underdeveloped countries, the capitalist nations are seen as agents of imperialism. However, the history of Rome, Greece, and Persia demonstrates that imperialism existed long before capitalism flourished. In the actions of the Soviet Union lies further evidence that imperialist tendencies can exist without a profit motive. Indeed, while capitalist countries abandoned their old empires, the Soviets are using every means at their disposal to build a new empire. As can be seen from the course of events after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union became the most imperialist of all states.

Thomas Fortune Ryan (1851 - 1928), owner of the New York city transport and the creator of the first holding company in the United States transport company, one of the richest and most influential Americans, "one of the financial giants of that time" (Bernard Baruch; it was about the 1890s).

Baruch B.M. From a Wall Street stock trader to a powerful political figure. Biography of a major American financier, eminence grise of the White House. M.: CJSC Tsentrpoligraf, 2015. P. 225 - 226.

Baruch's active penetration into political life began in 1912. With his money, he supported Woodrow Wilson in his presidential company. Baruch contributed $50,000 to the Democratic Fund. In gratitude for this, Wilson appointed him to the department of national defense. During the First World War, he became head of the War Industrial Committee (eng. War Industries Board) and played a key role in reorienting American industry to the war effort.

After World War I, he served on the Supreme Economic Council of the Versailles Conference and was the personal economic adviser to President T. W. Wilson. After Woodrow Wilson, he remained the constant companion of Presidents Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. During World War II, President F. D. Roosevelt appointed Baruch chairman of a rubber shortage committee. In 1943, Baruch became an adviser to the director of the military mobilization department, D. Byrnes.

"Baruch's Plan"

Additional Information

Bernard Baruch was the first in the world to use the term "cold war" on April 16 in a speech before the South Carolina House of Representatives to refer to the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Notes

Literature

• Bernard Mannes Baruch, Bernard Baruch Baruch: My Own Story. - New York: Buccaneer Books, 1993. - 337 p. - ISBN 156849095X

Links

• Baruch's Plan - Bomb Destruction Attempts - washprofile.com
• Bernard Baruch- article from the Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• August 19
• Born in 1870
• Born in South Carolina
• Deceased June 20
• Deceased in 1965
• Dead in New York
• US businessmen
• US statesmen

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what "Baruch, Bernard" is in other dictionaries:

Baruch Bernard (Mannes)- (Baruch, Bernard (Mannes)) (1870 1965), Amer. businessman and financier. Advisor presidents from Wilson to Eisenhower, he preferred to be an eminence grise without holding elected office. During the 1st World War, he was a member of the Council of the National ... ... The World History

- (b. 1870) US statesman, member of the Democratic Party. B. made himself a large fortune by stock exchange operations. In 1918 he was appointed chairman of the Office of military industry and a member of the Procurement Committee for ... ... Diplomatic Dictionary

Hebrew name, rarely surname. Baruch, Bernard American financier, stock speculator, as well as political and statesman Baruch from Shklov popularizer of science among Eastern European Jews, writer, translator and publisher of books on ... Wikipedia

The Baruch Plan is an American plan submitted to the United Nations Commission on nuclear power in 1946, which contained the conditions under which the United States offered other countries to develop cooperation in the peaceful use of the atom. ... ... Wikipedia

Rockefellers- (Rockefellers) The Rockefellers are a dynasty of major American entrepreneurs, political and public figures History of the Rockefeller dynasty, representatives of the Rockefeller dynasty, John Davison Rockefeller, Rockefellers today, Rockefellers and ... ... Encyclopedia of the investor

Reverse of the medal awarded to the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Swedish Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin) a prestigious award for scientific achievements in the field of physiology and ... ... Wikipedia

US Federal Reserve- (Federal Reserve System) The US Federal Reserve System is a system of banks that acts as the US central bank. The US Federal Reserve System: background and history of creation, Federal Reserve Law, functions, the US Central Bank, relations with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation ... Encyclopedia of the investor

The Nobel Prize (Swedish Nobelpriset, English Nobel Prize) is one of the most prestigious international prizes awarded for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions or a major contribution to the culture or development of society. ... ... Wikipedia

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine highest award for scientific achievements in the field of physiology and medicine, awarded annually by the Nobel Committee in Stockholm. Contents 1 Requirements for nominating candidates 2 List of laureates ... Wikipedia

Books

• From a Wall Street stockbroker to a powerful political figure, Baruch Bernard M. "The lone wolf of Wall Street," "the economic dictator," "the gray eminence of the White House" was the name of Bernard Baruch. Having amassed capital on the stock exchange, Baruch entered politics, becoming an economic ...

” synonymous with “gambler”. But in fact, this word comes from the Latin specular, which means "sniff out" and "observe." A "speculator" is a person who watches the future and acts before this future comes, ”said Bernard Baruch about stock speculation in the book "My Story".

Bernard Mannes Baruch He began his career as an errand boy in a brokerage house, receiving $ 3 a week for this job. Soon he became a broker, and then a partner of A. Housman & Co. And seven years later he already owned an eighth of this brokerage house.

Bernard was born in 1870 in Camden, South Carolina to Simon and Bell Baruch. He was the second of four sons. His father emigrated to the US from Germany at the age of fifteen. graduated Medical College, became a surgeon, was one of the founders of physiotherapy. Simon Baruch participated in the war between the North and the South on the side of the Confederates under the command of General Robert E. Lee. Bernard's maternal ancestors, Sephardi, migrated to America in the 1800s.

Bernard was born shortly after the end of the Civil War. The devastated South, where conflicts between blacks and whites continued, and gangs roamed the roads, was not the best place for living. When Bernard was ten years old, the Baruch family moved to New York.

After graduating from New York College in 1889, Bernard began in the lowest position in the office. He ran with instructions to banking institutions, meanwhile being interested in life. Wall Street. In 1898, with the help of loved ones, he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. The first experience ended in failure. Again and again, Bernard had to turn to relatives for help. Finally, his father told him that the family only had $500 for a rainy day. And just with these 500 dollars, Baruch's upward movement began.

His behavior on the exchange seemed strange. Although he was then on the rise, Baruch often played short. In his opinion, it is impossible to buy low and sell high. And so he often went against the market, selling when many were buying, and vice versa. One of his famous aphorisms says: “As soon as good news about the state of the stock market reaches the front page The New York Times, sell!

For Baruch, Wall Street became "one long lesson in human nature." In general, he was very careful with rumors. “There is something in the inside information that seems to paralyze the rational forces of a person ... He will ignore the most obvious facts,” Baruch believed. As Bernard's wealth grew, so did his opportunities. He could already afford to go into private equity and co-founded Texasgulf Inc., a service company for the then-growing oil industry.

In 1903, together with his brother Hartwig, Bernard opened his own company, Baruch brothers. By this time, Bernard, already a millionaire, married Anna Griffin. Despite the then flourishing practice of creating various trusts to manipulate the market, Baruch conducted all his operations alone, for which he received the nickname "the lone wolf of Wall Street."

Here is a very interesting audio recording of him:

In 1907, he purchased 17,000 acres of land in South Carolina, the Hobcaw Barony estate, for $55,000, hoping that in the event of another fall in stock prices, this land would not leave him without a livelihood.

At the same time, Baruch brothers buys the international trading company Hentz with offices on Wall Street, Paris, London, Berlin and other cities. Baruch became one of the financial leaders on Wall Street - a rare major took place without consulting him. He became such a powerful force that the press began tracking his whereabouts. The newspaper reported: "One of the reasons that caused traders to take a bearish (downward price movement) position was the rumor that Bernard Baruch was going to go on a short vacation."

With support in the 1912 presidential election campaign Woodrow Wilson- he contributed 50 thousand dollars to it - Baruch began to actively enter political life. A few years later, Wilson appointed him to the Commission of the National Defense Council and to the Allied Procurement Commission. This was his first public office. A few years later, Baruch retired and handed over the management of Hentz to the brothers. One of them is Hermann Baruch, a doctor and banker, later an ambassador to Portugal and Holland.

However, involvement in the distribution of military orders gave Bernard Baruch (then chairman of the war industry committee) opportunities for enrichment. According to some reports, by the end of World War I, Baruch owned shares in most factories that carried out military orders. It is believed that by this time his fortune had reached 200 million dollars. After the end of the war, Baruch participated in the work of the Versailles Peace Conference, its Supreme Economic Council.

Elected to a second presidential term, Woodrow Wilson made Baruch his personal economic adviser. Since then, US presidents have used the services of Baruch as an adviser on a regular basis. He was an adviser to Presidents Harding and Coolidge. During the years of H. Hoover's presidency (1929-1933), being his financial adviser, Baruch opposed the establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR.

All his life Baruch studied the psychology of people. In 1932, in the preface to C. McKay's book The Most Common Errors and Foolishness of the Crowd, he wrote that reading this book saved him millions: . The world has known lynch mobs and Crusades, influxes into banks demanding the return of deposits and fires, which, if people had not panicked, could have done without loss of life. Not so long ago, a "passion for crowding" arose when large groups young people were taught to dance in unison, imitating lemmings (a group of rodents - Approx. ed.)”.

When Baruch was writing this preface, there was an absolute collapse of the financial market, which began three years earlier - in 1929. Rampant then led to the growth of the Dow Jones index to a mark of 381 points, which caused a surge of greed. Three years later, the index fell not to 300, not to 150, and not even to 75, but to 41 points. Mindless greed showed its downside. “I have always believed,” Baruch said of this deplorable situation, “that if, even in the midst of a dizzying fall in the price of securities, we tirelessly repeated that “twice two is still four,” many evils could be avoided. In the same way today, even at the moment of the highest despondency, when many begin to wonder if there is a limit to falling, the following spell may be suitable: "Twice two is still four."

Baruch's affair with Countess Enid Kenmare, later nicknamed Lady Killmore - "kill more" was told at that time. This nickname, exercising in black humor, was put into circulation by Somerset Maugham: three of her husbands died by a strange coincidence. The beautiful Australian, a talented artist and sculptor, was an excellent rider and shot accurately. Rarely could she leave anyone indifferent. Baruch was 25 years older than her, but this did not prevent their love affair, which lasted several years.

The Great Depression did not take Baruch by surprise: back in 1928, he sold all his shares and bought. On October 29, Wall Street's famous Black Tuesday, in the midst of a panic, Baruch appeared on the New York Stock Exchange visitors' gallery with Winston Churchill.

It is said that Baruch wanted to demonstrate to him his power over the market. The Great Depression set the US economy back 30 years, to the turn of the century. Franklin Roosevelt, who became president in 1933, announced the "New Deal" - economic policy which was supposed to lead the country out of a severe crisis. Once again, Baruch was his adviser.

In the mid-1930s, escalating tensions in Europe sparked a heated debate about what the United States should do - support one of the blocs or remain neutral. Baruch sensed the dismay of the voters. Roosevelt promised the people: “As long as I remain president, I guarantee American mothers that their children will not be sent to any war that is fought outside the United States,” and indeed pushed the neutrality bill through Congress.

In 1937, Baruch submitted to the Senate Military Affairs Committee proposals for the mobilization of industry in case of war. Speaking for the preservation of US neutrality in a future war, Baruch simultaneously insisted on strengthening military power and creating military-strategic reserves. After the attack of fascist Germany on the USSR, he advocated rendering assistance to the Soviet Union. During World War II, Baruch's role did much to bring about the reconversion of the American economy. His efforts prepared him for a place on the Nazi list of people condemned to death.

Anti-Semites consider him one of the organizers of the mythical "world Zionist government", although Baruch was not a Zionist, and he considered himself, first of all, an American, and then a Jew.

As a special representative of Roosevelt, Baruch traveled to Great Britain more than once, he was connected by a long-term friendship with Winston Churchill, who, coming to the USA, repeatedly stayed at Baruch's house. Last President with whom he worked was Harry Truman. At the age of 75, Baruch headed the UN Atomic Energy Commission. He considered the preservation of the US nuclear monopoly to be the main task. In 1946, at the first session of the commission, he made public his program. “Science has uncovered one of the most terrible secrets nature. History teaches us that the horrors that weapons bring with them have never deterred people from using them. However, today we have a weapon of such destructive power in our hands that there is simply no defense against it.”

Baruch put forward a plan to establish total control over all developments in the field of atomic energy, called the "Baruch plan". This plan caused a sharp rebuff from the representative of the USSR A. Gromyko - and was not accepted.

Baruch retired in 1947. But one day, I met Vyshinsky at one of the evenings and told him: “We are both fools. You have the bomb and we have the bomb. Let's get this thing under our control while there's still time, because while we're busy talking, everyone else will get their hands on this bomb sooner or later."

The term "cold war" was first used by George Orwell, but Baruch is believed to have coined it. Speaking to the South Carolina legislature in April 1947, Baruch said, “Let's not let us be deceived. We are in a state of "cold war".

In Washington's Lafayette Park or New York's Central Park, it was not uncommon to meet a tall, slender, gray-haired gentleman. Baruch liked to make important meetings not in a formal setting, but on a park bench. They said that the park bench replaces his office. This became his original "brand": "advisor on the bench of Lafayette Park."

Throughout his life, his favorite place was the Hobcaw Barony estate in South Carolina, bought in his youth. This place was his refuge, here he liked to hunt, he came here almost every year in May. He also spent May 1965 there. In June he died. He was 95.

New York College in Manhattan (Baruch College) is named after him - one of the largest and most famous higher schools business. There is a sculpture on the college grounds depicting Baruch sitting on a bench. For those who see it for the first time, the illusion is often created that next to them, on the bench, is a living person.

Stay up to date with all important United Traders events - subscribe to our