Here’s a bizarre story going the rounds. I don’t know how true it is, but that it’s being given serious coverage reflects something about a trend of our times (e.g., Stanley Fischer’s career). From The Telegraph:
Michael Bloomberg, the American billionaire businessman, three-time New York mayor and philanthropist, is considering running as Tory candidate for London mayor in 2016, it has been claimed
By Our Foreign Staff 11:06AM BST 05 Apr 2015
Michael Bloomberg wants to return to being a mayor — but in London, not New York, according to reports.
The three-time New York mayor is “considering” standing as the Tory candidate to be mayor of London in 2016, unnamed friends told The Sunday Times.However, a close aide of Mr Bloomberg later distanced the billionaire businessman, three-time New York mayor and philanthropist from a move to London.He has a £20 million house in Knightsbridge and has previously referred to London as his “second home”.
If it were to happen, Mr Bloomberg would be replacing his friend Boris Johnson, who was himself born in America, and who joked two years ago that the pair should do a “job swap”.
Steve Hilton, former adviser to David Cameron, told The Sunday Times: “It would be an incredible coup for London if Mike Bloomberg could be persuaded to run for mayor here. His kind of pragmatic, problem-solving leadership is exactly what London needs.”
If Mr Bloomberg were to run, he would need fast track citizenship — which usually takes five years. However, a Conservative Party source told The Sunday Times that they “don’t think it would be a problem” — because Mr Bloomberg has invested more than £500 million in Britain, the paper reported.
How much do you have to invest in the U.S. to get one of those investor’s visas? $500 thousand?
I use this crime-fighting billionaire frequently in my blog as an example of the kind of rich, powerful, extremely effective guy, a real life Bruce Wayne, whom you would ideally want to have on your side. As an American citizen, I would like to have Bloomberg on the side of our fellow American citizens on issues like immigration.
But there is absolutely nothing in our current elite zeitgeist to shame Bloomberg in that direction
