Voting Station

Bernard Baruch

Please vote to return to collections.

Financier

The Resume

    (August 19, 1870-June 20, 1965)
    Born in Camden, South Carolina
    Stock broker/Philanthropist/Presidential advisor
    Chaired the War Industries Board (1918-19)
    Member of Woodrow Wilson's staff at the Paris Peace Conference
    Member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 'Brain Trust'
    American representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (1946)

Why he might be annoying:

    He had an affair with Clare Booth Luce.
    One reviewer called his autobiography 'a seamlessly banal and disingenuous work.'
    His comment, 'Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter' is often misattributed to Dr. Seuss; it also tends to be treated as advice on how to live your life, when all Baruch was doing was joking about the seating arrangements at his parties.
    He rarely held official posts while advising presidents, giving him influence without accountability.
    Like the Rothschild family, he inspires a lot of antisemitic muttering about Jewish financiers who secretly run the world.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He started as a $3-a-week clerk on Wall Street and became a self-made millionaire before he was 30.
    German General Paul von Hindenberg said he 'won the war fo the Allies' by managing America's economic mobilization during WWI.
    He received the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his contributions to the war effort.
    He was the first person to use the phrase 'Cold War' to describe the post-WWII standoff between the US and USSR (April 16, 1947).
    On his 85th birthday, he said 'To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 81.82% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 9 Votes: 88.89% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 30 Votes: 56.67% Annoying