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Giuliani and I lived in the same building, 444 East 86th Street. I first saw Giuliani in the garage. It was 1986 and he was the most feared person in the United States. Little did these people or even myself ever think that this man in the next few years would save America. Yet, it is a fact. In the late 1980s, Rudolph Giuliani saved America.
When I saw him and he was getting into a not-particularly-prestigious car, I walked over. I told him I was a broker. We exchanged a few words and he laughed.
It was Giuliani’s habit to walk around the big entrance in the building every Saturday. He talked to people, I presume that was his measure of getting information about his future pulse of the City.
There was a big strike, and the cleaner in the building, who built up a nice business, could not work because his workers were not permitted to function. It so happened that he parlayed his cleaning business in twelve other concessions. Obviously none of the twelve cleaners would do any business on that Saturday. He told me that if this strike continues, he would go bankrupt. At that time, the mayor was David Dinkins, who defeated Giuliani in 1989.
I walked over to Mr. Giuliani and said that the cleaner would very much like to talk to him. He had a nice store in the building. Giuliani went over and shook his hand, and then the cleaner burst out:
“Mr. Giuliani, you have to run. You have to save me! Let me tell you. Myself, my whole family, in fact this whole building, everybody in this building, they are all going to work for you for nothing. But you have to become the mayor of the city. Otherwise, this Mickey Mouse is going to destroy us.”
This was very much how people talked to Rudy. They liked him and they had confidence in him. In fact, later on we all lit up the city, and cleaned up the city.
Gus, the doorman in my new building at East 54th Street, before the election for Mayor in 2001, once remarked, “We will never get another Giuliani.”
I presume Giuliani carried the maintenance union. They had more confidence in him picking up the garbage, than even the garbage union.
Later on I learned that successful men have to work with anybody. Otherwise, the problems will bury us.
This is 2006. It’s not an election year, but it is exploding with the need for new policies. It is an extraordinary year. America has to sort out its problems. I remember that in 1968, when Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy, he said, he is not running against a single man (namely Lyndon Johnson). He is running to propose new policies. 1968 was not an ordinary year, and 1968 was not an ordinary election.
The year 2006 is a year of realizing that Robert Kennedy also said, “America has plenty of problems, and we cannot solve other people’s problems.”
In 2006, we have one number: the $726 billion dollar deficit. It is America’s problem, and not other people’s problem. It is not a problem that we can discard simply, not to throw the blame on Iraq, and the terrorists.
I trust we can call the year 2006 is a test for politicians, who understand, who can cope, and who have a Robert Kennedy type of new policies, to face what are called,
“The contractual obligations that are destroying America.”
We only have to look at General Motors. It is being destroyed by Jimmy Hoffa’s outdated contracts, pension obligations, healthcare obligations, and lawyers.
Giuliani Partners is a rapidly expanding, unique investment banking firm, covering its offices in about eight states and doing business in more, dealing mainly with companies that have problems, just as General Motors had problems. A man like Rudy, who has spent all his life in politics, it is a welcome change to see what America is all about.
Indeed, the year 2006 is not about finding criminals, it’s not about breaking RICO. It is not to pick up the filthy antics of individuals. Frankly, it is the year of the “Shop steward.” A shop steward has to cope with all the problems.
The $726 billion deficit is 75 percent accounted for by “The contractual obligations that lawyers imposed on various segments of the American economy.”
Once upon a time, Mr. Giuliani lived in the 35th floor and I the fifth floor of 444 East 86th Street. In 1999 a divorce lawyer threw me out of my apartment of twenty years and pocketed $100,000 after dumping the place. Granted it had a $100,000 mortgage debt, but the current price is $600,000. Thus, I lost $400,000 pre-tax gain, capital gain. This is how my savings at my current age of 68, have been impaired by a contractual obligation which was actually distorted by an uneducated and unaccomplished divorce lawyer from New Mexico. The system permits the destruction of other people’s savings.
If we want to look for, anyone to look for the year 2008, we first have to look at our accounting. How many people can survive $400,000 taken away by a small-time attorney who probably got $10,000 legal fee and I lost $400,000?
Rudy Giuliani has demonstrated many qualities of leadership. But in my mind, there will always be one accomplishment about which the public doesn’t know. I wrote an article about it, five-six years ago and it probably got lost. But in 1989 or ‘88, Rudolph Giuliani saved America. That was not just going after criminals. That was economic leadership. That was the job of a shop steward.
Mike Milliken destroyed savings & loans, and the country ended with at least a $500 billion dollar loss. But by 1987 or so, he targeted the insurance industry. These were big portfolios! If a savings & loan defaults, the stockholders lost money, and that’s it. But an insurance company has tremendous obligations and if it loses its capital, it still has to be paid by the American people, the policies which were secured by bonds. Had Mike Milliken wanted to lay his hands on the insurance companies’ trillions of dollars. He would control the market.
Rudy Giuliani acted as a shop steward, stopped Mike Milliken, stopped Drexel, stopped the raiding of the insurance companies. Silently, he saved America.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new. We are looking at an America which will exist without airlines and automobile companies. We could actually become a second-rate economic power.
We used to say that what’s good for General Motors is good for America. We need somebody who will say, Saving General Motors is saving America.
(Article 20 - posted February 15, 2006)
e-mail: mlikar@aol.com
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