To Address Fiscal Woes, Mayor Allies With Treasury Chief
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Mayor Bloomberg is teaming up with the U.S. Treasury secretary, Henry Paulson Jr., to tackle the financial and regulatory problems that many say are threatening New York’s status as the financial capital of the world.
Mr. Bloomberg is traveling to Washington next week to speak at a conference Mr. Paulson is hosting on America’s capital markets. Both have recently drawn attention to the financial and security markets losing business to cities such as London, Dubai, and Hong Kong.
The day-long conference, to be held at Georgetown University, is part of a growing movement in New York and Washington to address what many see as threat to the economy here.
In November, a bipartisan committee of business leaders and academics in Washington warned that Wall Street was “losing its competitive edge.” The committee, which was praised by Mr. Paulson, found that in the first nine months of 2006, 11 American companies opted to list on the London Stock Exchange instead of going public in New York.
Mr. Bloomberg and Senator Schumer issued a similar report, calling for regulatory and legislative action to improve the business environment on Wall Street so that companies aren’t driven to countries that are easier to do business in. It found that America stands to lose between 4% and 7% of its piece of the global financial pie if nothing is done here. It also called said Congress should consider exempting small companies from the most controversial portion of the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to allow foreign companies to opt out if they already comply with regulations in their home countries.
Mr. Bloomberg, who founded a financial news business, and Mr. Paulson, a former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, are natural allies in this fight. When Mr. Paulson was named treasury secretary last May, Mr. Bloomberg noted that he has been a personal friend and said he would be a “brilliant” secretary. Now, the two have aligned interests.
Mr. Bloomberg will be in Miami today meeting with officials on the issue of energy efficiency. According to City Hall, the mayor is gathering information for a report he will soon unveil on how to bring New York’s infrastructure up to date to deal with a population boom expected by 2030.
