David Stockman

1946 to present

David Stockman was a US Congressman (1977-1981) from the State of Michigan before he became President Reagan's Director (1981-85) of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Disillusioned by the political process and still very ambitious he made good on what he had learned in Washington, D.C. and obtained work on Wall Street. He started with Salomon Brothers, became a partner at Blackstone, and eventually started his own financial firm. In short, he understands the game.

Now, I do not pretend to know the character of David Stockman, but he appears to be different from many of his previous colleagues in the District and on the Street. He comes across as a man of moral integrity who became tired of being burned in a corrupt game. Indeed, his book The Great Deformation comes across as a sort of catharsis in which he describes a corrupt system in which good cannot succeed without a sound money supply.

It is a book well worth reading by those who are ambitious and wish to perform good.