We Turn Newsweek’s “Conventional Wisdom” on Bloomberg Upside Down: “Good” is Bad

Newsweeks’ February 9, 2009 edition’s “Conventional Wisdom Watch” (p. 14) declares with a Arrow-up for Bloomberg:

NYC mayor quiets critics with $239 mil. in ‘08 charitable gifts. Now rebuild Ground Zero.

Wrong! Bloomberg’s “charitable gifts” hasn’t quieted us as his critic. Quite the opposite. In fact, news of his 2008 “charitable gifts” (Newsweek fails to mention the $239 million puts Bloomberg #1 ahead of all other dispensers of “charitable gifts”) has been, for us, the occasion of detailed and wary criticism because Bloomberg misuses his “charitable gifts” for political ends.

(We concur that Bloomberg isn’t doing a good job rebuilding Ground Zero.- That sounds like more unsilenced criticism in itself!)

For our unsilenced criticism on the subject of Bloomberg and his “charitable gifts” you might want to see the following:

For a history Bloomberg’s annual level of “charitable gifts” see:

Monday, February 2, 2009
Bloomberg’s Annual Levels Of Charitable Giving

For how Bloomberg’s estimated wealth ten-folded in a decade transforming him while he was mayor into the richest New Yorker see:

Monday, February 2, 2009
Bloomberg’s Increasing Annual Wealth: 1996 to 2008

For our analysis about how all of this is very bad news for New Yorkers see:

Friday, February 6, 2009
The-Not-So “Ridiculous” “Outrage” of the Mayor’s Campaign Spending: Getting the Whole Story

Monday, February 2, 2009
The Good News IS the Bad News: Thanks A lot for Mayor Bloomberg’s “Charity”