Bernard Baruch: secret ruler of the United States and advisor to American presidents (6 photos)

Financier, stock exchange player and one of the most influential people of the first half of the 20th century.





Bernard Mannes Baruch was born on August 19, 1870 in family of a poor doctor. They lived in South Carolina, then moved to New York. In 1890, Baruch graduated from City College and went work as a junior clerk in the brokerage office of A. A. Housman & Co. Soon he became a broker and partner of the company.



Bernard Baruch

In the world of securities, quotes and excitement, Baruch felt yourself like a fish in water. He “outplayed” the market over and over again and became rich. TO In 1903 he already had his own company, Baruch Brothers, and he became a millionaire.





Big money brought him into politics. In 1912 he “bet” on President Woodrow Wilson, financed him election campaign and did not fail. Now he was “one of the people” in the White House and in 1916 Wilson gave him a position in the Department of National Defense. Baruch then headed the Military-Industrial Committee. Already by the end of the First world he had substantial stakes in American defense companies - he gave them orders for the production of weapons and military technology and became richer. At that time it “cost” more than 200 million dollars.

After the war, Bernard became Wilson's personal adviser on economic issues and initiated the creation of the Federal Reserve systems (FRS). It was Baruch who made the dollar the main currency in the world. He continued to invest money in politicians and helped get the presidency chair for Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John Kennedy.



Baruch and John Kennedy

He felt good even during the terrible Great depression of 1929. Baruch sold all his shares in advance and “shifted” in bonds. Soon the market collapsed, former millionaires went to beg street, but Bernard was ok.



During World War II, Bernard again took up the defense industry: received military contracts and counted the money. When the war ended, Baruch took the post of US representative to the UN Atomic Commission energy. By the way, he proposed to completely ban nuclear weapons and make the atom is exclusively peaceful. He was not supported, but Baruch was not particularly became upset and continued to influence White House policy. In 1947 he switched to confrontation with the USSR. There is very little about this work information, but he probably did a lot. This conclusion can be drawn from his finances - Baruch became a billionaire. It is believed that the term “cold war” was coined by the British writer George Orwell, but in fact It was Bernard who invented it and “launched it to the masses.”



With Winston Churchill

The US eminence grise died in 1965, he was 94 years old. He was buried in the New York suburb of Queens. He had two daughters and son - he died in the 1990s. There is no more information about this family, as if they carefully erased.