Peter G. Peterson

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Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:Infobox officeholder Peter George Peterson (June 5, 1926 – March 20, 2018) was an American investment banker who served as United States Secretary of Commerce from 1972 to 1973 during the administration of President Richard Nixon.<ref name="WPO">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NYT">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="TNH"/> Peterson was also chairman and CEO of Bell & Howell from 1963 to 1971.<ref name="WSJ"/> From 1973 to 1984, he was chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers.<ref name="WSJ"/> In 1985, he co-founded the private equity firm the Blackstone Group, and served as chairman.<ref name="Blom"/> In the same year, Peterson became chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a position he held until his retirement in 2007, after which he was named chairman emeritus.<ref name="WSJ"/> In 2008, Peterson was ranked 149th on the "Forbes 400 Richest Americans" with a net worth of $2.8 billion.<ref name="WSJ"/><ref name="Blom"/> He was also known as founder and principal funder of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting fiscal austerity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life and education

Peterson was born on June 5, 1926, in Kearney, Nebraska. He was the eldest of three children<ref name="WPO"/> born to Venetia "Venet" Paul<ref name="NB">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (née Pavlou) and George Peterson (né Petropoulos). His parents were immigrants from southern Greece.<ref name="NYT"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He had one younger sister, Elaine, who died of croup when she was one year old,<ref name="NYT"/> and a brother, John, who was the youngest.<ref name="TNH">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father arrived in the United States at age 17, worked as a dishwasher for Union Pacific Railroad and roomed in a caboose.<ref name="NYT"/> In 1923, George opened and then ran a Greek diner, Central Café, in Kearney,<ref name="NYT"/> after changing his name from Georgios Petropoulos. Peter began working at the cash register at age 8.<ref name="NYT"/> Expelled from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for plagiarizing a term paper in his freshman year, Peterson enrolled at Northwestern University and The Kellogg School, graduating in 1947 with highest academic honors, summa cum laude.<ref name="NYT"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peterson was first married from 1948 to 1950 to Kris Krengel, a journalism student at Northwestern University.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He joined Market Facts upon graduation, a Chicago-based market research firm, in 1948.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1951, he received an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business before returning to Market Facts as an executive vice president.<ref name="NYT"/>

Business career

Peterson joined advertising agency McCann Erickson in 1953, again in Chicago, where he served as a director.<ref name="WSJ">Template:Cite news</ref> He joined movie-equipment maker Bell and Howell Corporation in 1958 as executive vice president.<ref name="Blom"/> He later succeeded Charles H. Percy as chairman and CEO, positions he held from 1963 to 1971.<ref name="WSJ"/>

In 1969, he was invited by philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III, CFR chairman John J. McCloy, and former treasury secretary Douglas Dillon to chair a Commission on Foundations and Private Philanthropy, which became known as the Peterson Commission.<ref name="NYT"/> Among its recommendations adopted by the government were that foundations be required annually to disburse a minimum proportion of their funds.<ref name="WSJ"/>

United States Secretary of Commerce (1972–73)

File:Richard M. Nixon posing with his Cabinet - NARA - 194437.jpg
Peterson in a group photo of Nixon's cabinet on June 16, 1972, third from the left on the bottom row

In 1971, he was named assistant to the president for international economic affairs by U.S. president Richard Nixon.<ref name="WPO"/> In April 1971, Peterson produced a secret report for Nixon on the volatile world economy that argued that the U.S. was in economic decline under the existing world order of trade, which the U.S. had helped build immediately after World War II. To stem that decline, according to Peterson, the U.S. must challenge competing nations in the trading sphere by adopting industrial policy. The report impressed Nixon and the idea of American competitive decline soon became "an article of popular belief". The report established some of the intellectual foundations of Nixon's decision in August 1971 to upend the Bretton Woods agreement. Professional economists derided the thesis as a form of mercantilism that betrayed "economic illiteracy".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1972, Peterson became Secretary of Commerce, a position he held for one year.<ref name="NYT"/> At that time he also assumed the chairmanship of Nixon's National Commission on Productivity and was appointed U.S. Chairman of the U.S.–Soviet Commercial Commission.<ref name="NYT"/> During his tenure, Peterson was a strong critic of the rising financial debt of the United States.<ref name="WPO"/>

Post-Washington career

Peterson was chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers (1973–1977) and Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc. (1977–1984).<ref>Ken Auletta, Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman, search pages, (Random House, December 12, 1985), Template:ISBNTemplate:Page needed</ref>

In 1985, Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman co-founded the private equity and investment management firm the Blackstone Group, and for many years Peterson was its chairman.<ref>David Carey & John E. Morris, King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone, (Crown 2010), pp. 45–56</ref> At Blackstone, he made a fortune, including the $1.9 billion he received when it went public in 2007, that funded many of his charitable and political causes.<ref>Blackstone IPO Prospectus</ref><ref>King of Capital, p. 5</ref>

File:PeterGeorgePetersonSwearingInWoman.jpg
Peterson swearing in, Cmdr. Pam Chelgren-Koterba, the first woman officer of the NOAA Corps (1972)

Clinton presidency

In 1992, he was one of the co-founders of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan citizens' organization that advocates reduction of the federal budget deficit.<ref name=hawk/> Following record deficits under President George W. Bush, Peterson said in 2004, "I remain a Republican, but the Republicans have become a far more theological, faith-directed party, not troubling with evidence."<ref name=hawk>Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 1994, President Bill Clinton named Peterson as a member of the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform co-chaired by Senators Bob Kerrey and John Danforth.<ref name="NYT"/> He also served as co-chair of the Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprises (co-chaired by John Snow).<ref name="WPO"/>

Later career

Peterson succeeded David Rockefeller as chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1985 and served until his retirement from that position in 2007.<ref name="Blom"/> He served as trustee of the Rockefeller family's Japan Society and of the Museum of Modern Art, and was previously on the board of Rockefeller Center Properties, Inc.<ref name="Blom"/><ref name="WSJ"/>

He was the founding chairman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (formerly the "Institute for International Economics", renamed in his honor in 2006), and a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development.<ref name="Blom">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was also chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York between 2000 and 2004.<ref name="Blom"/>

In 2008, he founded the Peter G. Peterson Foundation (PGPF), an organization devoted to spreading public awareness on fiscal sustainability issues related to the national debt, federal deficits, Social Security policy, and tax policies.<ref name="NYT"/> PGPF distributed the 2008 documentary film I.O.U.S.A. and did outreach to the 2008 presidential candidates.<ref>Bryan Bender, Movement warns of US bankruptcy, Seeks support for overhaul of federal budget, The Boston Globe, July 10, 2008.</ref>

Peterson funded The Fiscal Times, a news website that reports on current economic issues, including the federal budget, the deficit, entitlements, health care, personal savings, taxation, and the global economy.<ref name="WPO"/> Fiscal Times contributors and editors include several veteran economics reporters for The New York Times and The Washington Post.<ref name="WPO"/><ref name="NYT"/>

On August 4, 2010, it was announced that Peterson had signed "The Giving Pledge". He was one of 40 billionaires, led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who agreed to give at least half their wealth to charity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Most of his giving was to his own foundation, The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which focuses on raising public awareness about long-term fiscal sustainability issues.<ref name="NYT"/>

Political activities

From 2007 through 2011, Peterson was reported to have contributed $458 million to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, to promote the cause of fiscal responsibility.<ref name="HPB">Template:Cite news</ref>

Peterson opposed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 because it cut corporate and other taxes by raising the debt. "Mortgaging our fiscal future for trillions in temporary tax cuts will hurt our economy over time, and every C.E.O. should know that", he said. "True business patriots need to advocate for their country as well as their company."<ref>C.E.O. Deficit Fears Dissolve With the Prospect of Corporate Tax Cuts. By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN. New York Times. NOV. 20, 2017</ref>

Personal life

Peterson was married three times and divorced twice.<ref name="TNH"/> In 1953, he married former Brown University psychology professor Sally Hornbogen Peterson, a trustee of the Dalton School and a graduate of Northwestern University, with whom he had five children: John Scott Peterson, James Jim Peterson, David Peterson, Michael Alexander Peterson,<ref name="NB"/> and the writer Holly Peterson.<ref name="Sicilia">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They divorced in 1979.<ref name="Sicilia"/> The next year, Peterson married Joan Ganz Cooney, the co-creator of the popular American educational children's television series Sesame Street.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In his autobiography, Peterson recalled his business and private life and blamed himself for the failure of two of his three marriages but expressed pride for having grown close to his children.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Peterson died on March 20, 2018, at age 91, of natural causes at his Manhattan home.<ref name="WPO"/><ref name="NYT"/><ref name="TNH"/> He is survived by his children, his wife Joan, and nine grandchildren.

Honors

In 1962, Peterson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In recognition of his support, the influential<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peterson Institute for International Economics was named in his honor in 2006.<ref name="Blom"/>

In 2006, Peterson was honored with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution.<ref name="WPO"/> The same year he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref name="HPB"/>

Writings

Books

  • Facing Up: How to Rescue the Economy from Crushing Debt and Restore the American Dream. Simon & Schuster; First Edition (November 8, 1993). Template:ISBN
  • Will America Grow up Before it Grows Old: How the Coming Social Security Crisis Threatens You, Your Family and Your Country. Random House; 1 edition (October 8, 1996). Template:ISBN
  • Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform America—and the World. Three Rivers Press (September 26, 2000). Template:ISBN
  • On Borrowed Time: How the Growth in Entitlement Spending Threatens America's Future with Neil Howe. Transaction Publishers (May 1, 2004). Template:ISBN
  • Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It. Picador (June 16, 2005). Template:ISBN
  • The Education of an American Dreamer: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way from a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond. Twelve (June 8, 2009). Template:ISBN

References

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