Mike Bloomberg on Technology Mayor of New York City (Independent)

Invest in growth hubs to generate breakthroughs & jobs

Fix 240,000 miles of roads, 16,000 bridges in 4 years

Crumbling infrastructure undermines global competitiveness

Raising deficits constrains federal infrastructure spending

The tax bill [passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump in December 2017] does nothing to address these challenges. In fact, it makes each of them worse.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Restricting state and local tax deductions will also mean less local investment for infrastructure, and by raising deficits, the bill will constrain federal infrastructure spending. Our airports, railways and roads are in desperate need of modernization, and our energy grids are vulnerable and inefficient. Yet spending on those and other needs, which acts as a catalyst for private investment, will become more difficult.

1979: On Wall Street at dawn of the computer age

13 years after he began at Salomon, Bloomberg was effectively demoted, transferred off the trading floor to the "information services" department, Tech Support. Bloomberg found himself literally isolated from the action.

Some Salomon traders expected Bloomberg to walk. He says he never considered resignation; he was a loyal Salomon man no matter what. So he stayed, and if the demotion was a blow it nonetheless turned into another of those Bloomberg strokes of good fortune.

The computer age was dawning. Few on Wall Street realized the transformations the machine would bring. But Bloomberg had an early insight. He understood that technology was going to make trading easier and faster, that with computers every trader's information would be more accurate, more timely. Though no one could know it then, Bloomberg had devised a prototype of the computer that would make him a mogul.

1981: Invented "The Bloomberg terminal" for financial news

In 1981 the Philbro Corporation, a publicly-held commodities trading firm, acquired Salomon Brothers. Bloomberg was fired. Bloomberg used his $10 million in going-away money to start his own business, developing a unique computer terminal that assembles and digests financial information. The splashily handsome desktop became the machine that ate Wall Street.

Innovative Market Systems, as the company was called at first, began with 4 people and grew to 10,500 people working in 63 countries by 2008. "The Bloomberg," as it quickly became known, runs new stories produced by 2,300 journalists and editors working in 140 bureaus around the world. It can also be mined for other information, including relevant legal decisions, mounds of financial records and even celebrity gossip.

Teamed with Gov. Rendell on "Building America's Future"

Wireless network for better NYPD and NYFD communications

At the same time, we’ll expand its functions to serve all of City government--even the more mundane things that influence our quality of life.

Investing in infrastructure critical to competitiveness

Publicity helps business, but it's best to say it yourself

Let's not forget the business reason to have bookstores globally displaying our logo. Name recognition improves access for our salespeople. Building a widely recognized brand and a favorable image in consumers' minds takes decades and costs zillions. Every bit of publicity helps; you never know which imprint makes the difference. With radio, television, Internet access, and magazines competing for the public's attention, the old adage, "As long as they spell your name right," applies more than ever.

Another thought was more prophylactic. If we don't, someone else will. Having a rogue writer out there taking journalistic liberties to commercialize the truth is dangerous. I'd just as soon get in our best shot first.

In the end, though, there was only one compelling reason to go ahead. I wanted to say something.

Technology makes our jobs different but more productive

We prepare our broadcasts, turn our voices into data, save the data just the way print is stored, and have the computer air the programs off the hard disk while we go on to the next story. Instead of voicing our stories several times during a 2-hour rotation, we do it automatically. The computer, not our valuable people, wastes time doing the repetition.

When we first started, people challenged the notion that a computer would compete with a "live" person. Today, old-line practitioners feel threatened. Technology makes our job different but more productive and more interesting. Technology frees us to do more creative work. Technology is responsible for the employment of more and more people, not fewer and fewer.

Political will has not kept pace with scientific advances