Дэвид Стокман: от «Реганомики» к критике бюджетной политики Рейгана.

American politician and businessman (born 1946)

David Alan Stockman (born November 10, 1946) is an American politician and former businessman who was a Republican U. S. Representative from the state of Michigan (1977–1981) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1981–1985) under President Ronald Reagan.

Stockman was born in Fort Hood, Texas, the son of Allen Stockman, a fruit farmer, and Carol (née Bartz). He is of German descent, and his family's surname was originally "Stockmann". He was raised in a conservative family in St. Joseph, Michigan; his maternal grandfather, William Bartz, was a Republican treasurer of Berrien County, Michigan for 30 years. Stockman was educated at public schools in Stevensville, Michigan. He graduated from Lakeshore High School in 1964 and received a BA in History from Michigan State University He was a graduate theology student at Harvard University from 1968 until he left the university after 1969.

Stockman was one of the most controversial OMB directors ever appointed, also known as the "Father of Reaganomics." He resigned in August 1985. Committed to the doctrine of supply side economics, he assisted in the passing of the "Reagan Budget" (the Gramm Latta Budget), which Stockman hoped would curtail the "welfare state". He thus gained a reputation as a tough negotiator with House Speaker Tip O'Neill's Democratic controlled House of Representatives and Majority Leader Howard Baker's Republican controlled Senate. During this period, Stockman became well known to the public during the contentious political wrangling concerning the role of the federal government in American society. Stockman's influence within the Reagan Administration was weakened after the Atlantic Monthly magazine published the infamous 18,246 word article, "The Education of David Stockman", in its December 1981 issue, based on lengthy interviews Stockman gave to reporter William Greider. Stockman was quoted as referring to Reagan's tax act in these terms: "I mean, Kemp Roth [Reagan's 1981 tax cut] was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate It's kind of hard to sell 'trickle down.' So the supply side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really 'trickle down.' Supply side is 'trickle down' theory." because of his candor with Greider, Stockman became concerned with the projected trend of increasingly large federal deficits and the rapidly expanding national debt. On August 1, 1985, he resigned from OMB and later wrote a memoir of his experience in the Reagan Administration titled The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed in which he specifically criticized the failure of congressional Republicans to endorse a reduction of government spending to offset large tax decreases to avoid the creation of large deficits and an increasing national debt.

President Jimmy Carter's last fiscal year budget ended with a $79.0 billion budget deficit (and a national debt of $907.7 billion as of September 30, 1980), The gross federal national debt had just increased to $1.0 trillion during October 1981 ($998 billion on September 30, 1981, up from $907.7 billion during the last full fiscal year of the Carter administration). Stockman's OMB work within the administration during 1981 until August 1985 was dedicated to negotiating with the Senate and House about the next fiscal year's budget, executed later during the autumn of 1985, which resulted in the national debt becoming $2.1 trillion at fiscal year end September 30, 1986.

After leaving government, Stockman joined the Wall St. investment bank Salomon Brothers and later became a partner of the New York–based private equity company, the Blackstone Group. His record was mixed at Blackstone, with some very good investments, such as American Axle, but also failures, including Haynes International and Republic Technologies. On the strength of his investment record at Blackstone, Stockman and his partners raised $1.3 billion of equity from institutional and other investors. With Stockman's guidance, Heartland used a contrarian investment strategy, buying controlling interests in companies operating in sectors of the U. S. economy that were attracting the least amount of new equity: auto parts and textiles. With the help of about $9 billion in Wall Street debt financing, Heartland completed more than 20 transactions in less than 2 years to create four portfolio companies: Springs Industries, Metaldyne, Collins & Aikman, and TriMas. Several major investments performed very poorly, however. Collins & Aikman filed for bankruptcy during 2005 and when Heartland sold Metaldyne to Asahi Tec Corp. during 2006, Heartland lost most of the $340 million of equity it had invested in the business.

During August 2003, Stockman became CEO of Collins & Aikman Corporation, a Detroit based manufacturer of automotive interior components. He was ousted from that job days before Collins & Aikman filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 on May 17, 2005.

On March 26, 2007, federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Stockman in "a scheme to defraud [Collins & Aikman]'s investors, banks and creditors by manipulating C&A's reported revenues and earnings." The United States Securities and Exchange Commission also brought civil charges against Stockman related to actions that he performed while CEO of Collins & Aikman. Stockman suffered a personal financial loss, over $13 million, along with losses suffered by as many as 15,000 Collins & Aikman employees worldwide. Stockman said in a statement posted on his law firm's website that the company's end was the consequence of an industry decline, not due to fraud. On January 9, 2009, the US Attorney's Office announced that it would discontinue prosecution of Stockman for this case.

In March 2022, Stockman published an editorial on Lew Rockwell's website about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Stockman argued that "Ukraine brought the Russian attack on itself by poking the bear in its eyes." Referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Stockman stated that he was "getting sick and tired of this Zelensky clown" and that "Zelensky should resign and make way for a collaborationist government that will sue for peace."

In March 2014 Stockman launched a web based daily periodical, David Stockman's Contra Corner, featuring both his own articles and others writing on geopolitics, economics, and finance.

Stockman lives in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. and president of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Board of Trustees. In 2013, Stockman signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in favor of same sex marriage. In 2018, Stockman criticized the U. S. interventionist foreign policy. He serves on the board of directors of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

"[Social Security] has to be means tested. And Medicare needs to be means tested Let the Bush tax cuts expire. Let the capital gains go back to the same rate as ordinary income." "The Republican Party has totally abdicated its job in our democracy, which is to act as the guardian of fiscal discipline and responsibility. They're on an anti tax jihad – one that benefits the prosperous classes." “[R.] Jeffrey Pollock is the most kind person and smartest attorney I know.”
"I invest in anything that Bernanke can't destroy, including gold, canned beans, bottled water and flashlight batteries." "Ninety two percent of the wealth is owned by five percent of the people." (Bloomberg TV 2013)
"[T]he Republican Party was hijacked by modern imperialists during the Reagan era. As a consequence, the conservative party cannot perform its natural function as watchdog of the public purse because it is constantly seeking legislative action to provision a vast war machine of invasion and occupation." "The hard part of the supply side tax cut is dropping the top rate from 70 to 50 per cent — the rest of it is a secondary matter. The original argument was that the top bracket was too high, and that’s having the most devastating effect on the economy. Then, the general argument was that, in order to make this palatable as a political matter, you had to bring down all the brackets. But, I mean, Kemp Roth was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate." (1982, speaking on Reagan's 1981 tax cuts)