Early life

Kudlow was born and raised in New Jersey, the son of Ruth (née Grodnick) and Irving Howard Kudlow. His family is Jewish. Kudlow attended the private Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, New Jersey until 6th grade. He then attended the private Dwight-Englewood School from the second half of middle school to high school.

Kudlow graduated from University of Rochester in Rochester, New York with a degree in history in 1969. Known as "Kuddles" to friends, he was a star on the tennis team and a member of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society at Rochester.

In 1971, Kudlow attended Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he studied politics and economics. He left before completing his master's degree.

Government and political career

In 1970—still a Democrat—Kudlow joined Joseph Duffey's "New Politics" senatorial campaign in Connecticut. Duffey was a leading anti-war politician during the Vietnam war era. Kudlow, working with Yale University student Bill Clinton as well as many other rising young Democratic students, was known as a "brilliant" district coordinator. Kudlow worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of Joseph Duffey, along with Bill Clinton, John Podesta, and Michael Medved, another future conservative, and in 1976 he worked on the U.S. Senate campaign of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, along with Tim Russert, against Conservative Party incumbent James L. Buckley, brother of William F. Buckley, Jr.

Kudlow began his career as a staff economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, taking a position "as a junior economist in a job where a master's degree wasn't required." He worked in a division of that bank that handled open market operations.

During the first term of the Reagan administration (1981-1985), Kudlow was associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a part of the Executive Office of the President. While he worked at the OMB, Kudlow was also an advisory committee member of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, more commonly known as Freddie Mac. In April 2005, New York governor George Pataki included Kudlow in a six-member state tax commission.

In February 2009, rumors surfaced that Kudlow was considering a run for U.S. Senate in the 2010 Connecticut Senate election against Christopher Dodd. However, on March 24, 2009, he announced on his program that he was not running for the Senate.

In January 2010, after the upset win of Scott Brown for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts, a movement began in Buffalo, NY, to draft Kudlow for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Charles Schumer. On January 29, 2010, Kudlow said that he was considering entering the race, saying, "I do believe that retiring Sen. Schumer would be a noble cause." Kudlow never made any mention of the race again, allowing Gary Berntsen and Jay Townsend to pursue the seat instead.

Kudlow may run for the U.S. Senate from either Connecticut or New York in 2016.

In October 2015, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, in an email to supporters, attacked Kudlow, claiming he was “a champion of big corporations and big money” despite having yet announced that he may run for U.S. Senate.

In early December 2015, Jack Fowler of National Review created a 527 organization that encouraged Kudlow to run for U.S. Senate.

Private economist

In 1987 Kudlow was rehired by Bear Stearns as its chief economist and senior managing director. He was fired in 1994 after abuse of cocaine caused him to skip an important client presentation. Kudlow later admitted to a $10,000 a month cocaine habit. Kudlow also served as an economic counsel to A. B. Laffer & Associates, the San Diego, California, company owned by Arthur Laffer, a major supply-side economist and creator of the Laffer curve, an economic theory tying lower taxation levels to increased government revenues, at least at some taxation rates.

He was a member of the board of directors of Empower America, a supply-side economics organization founded in 1993 and merged in 2004 with the Citizens for a Sound Economy to form FreedomWorks. Kudlow is also consulting chief economist for American Skandia Life Assurance, Inc., in Connecticut, a subsidiary of insurance giant Prudential Financial.

Journalistic career

Kudlow's book American Abundance: The New Economic and Moral Prosperity (ISBN 0-8281-1117-0) was published by HarperCollins on December 1, 1997.

Kudlow became Economics Editor at National Review Online (NRO) in May 2001.

Kudlow served as one of a rotating set of hosts on the CNBC show America Now, which began airing in November 2001. In May 2002, that show was renamed Kudlow & Cramer, and Kudlow and Jim Cramer became the permanent hosts. In January 2005, Cramer left to host his own show, Mad Money, and the program's name was changed the next month to Kudlow & Company. The program went on hiatus in October 2008, and returned in January 2009 as The Kudlow Report. Kudlow added co-anchor of CNBC's The Call to his responsibilities in late 2008. Kudlow's style is direct and his line of argument is always based on optimism about the economy, the stock market, and the dollar.

Kudlow is also a regular guest on Squawk Box. He has contributed to CNBC.com on MSN. He also appears on The John Batchelor Show as a co-host on Tuesdays and as a substitute. In March 2006, Kudlow started to host a talk radio show on politics and economics on WABC (AM) as "The Larry Kudlow Show" aired on Saturday mornings from 10am to 1pm ET and via nationwide syndication starting 5 June 2010. He started a blog named Kudlow's Money Politic$ in October 2004.

He has also contributed to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the Cato Journal of the Cato Institute, and the City Journal of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, as well as the television shows The McLaughlin Group, and has appeared as a guest on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and on Wall Street Week.

Economic and political views

A self-described, "Reagan supply-sider", Kudlow opposes estate taxes, as well as taxes on dividends and capital gains. He also advocates that employees be compelled to make greater contributions to their pension and medical costs, suggesting that these expenses are an undue burden on businesses and defends high executive compensation as a manifestation of market forces and opposes most forms of government regulation. In general, he describes himself as a supply-side economist, arguing that reducing tax rates will encourage economic growth and ultimately increase tax revenue. He has often argued that economic growth will clear deficits, while acknowledging the limits of growth. He has also advocated wide ownership of stocks and frequently speaks of a broad "investor class" that includes most Americans. He is a harsh critic of corporate corruption that has characterized the Enron and Worldcom scandals.

During interviews on his CNBC show, Kudlow has taken to using "the Bernank" as a phrase facetiously naming Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke. The moniker was coined in a cartoon clip on YouTube written by noted video pundit, Omid Malekan The animation op-ed first appeared on YouTube in November 2010 and satirized quantitative easing. His continued use of "the Bernank" indicates Kudlow's endorsement of the cartoon and his negative opinion of the Fed's recent monetary policies.

On June 26, 2002, in a commentary in NRO titled "Taking Back the Market — By Force", Kudlow called for the United States to attack Iraq because "a lack of decisive follow-through in the global war on terrorism is the single biggest problem facing the stock market and the nation today." Kudlow was one of 250 economic experts to sign an open letter dated February 12, 2003 endorsing George W. Bush's policies on economic growth and jobs.

Kudlow firmly denied that the United States would enter a recession in 2007, or that it was in the midst of a recession in early to mid-2008. In December 2007, he wrote: "The recession debate is over. It's not gonna happen. Time to move on. At a bare minimum, we are looking at Goldilocks 2.0. (And that's a minimum). The Bush boom is alive and well. It's finishing up its sixth splendid year with many more years to come". In May 2008 he wrote: "President George W. Bush may turn out to be the top economic forecaster in the country" in his "'R' is for 'Right'". He said that "I don't believe we're heading into a recession" in regards to the large Wall Street drop of August 4, 2011 and recent signs of weaknesses in the United States' GDP.

In 2016, Kudlow endorsed Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump. He later defended Mr. Trump's plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico and to prevent Muslims from entering the United States, declaring that the United States was at war with ISIS and Trump was going to do what was necessary to protect the country. He also penned an article for Real Clear Politics advocating for conservative unity in the election and asking his conservative peers to stop criticizing Trump and instead help him become a stronger candidate.

Memberships and recognition

Kudlow is "distinguished scholar" at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University. He is also a member of the Catholic Advisory Board of the Ave Maria Mutual Funds. He serves as a member of the Fordham University Board of Trustees and is on the advisory committee of the Kemp Institute at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. Kudlow is frequently mentioned on television and journalism "best-dressed" lists.

Personal life

Kudlow has been married three times: In 1974, he married Nancy Ellen Gerstein, an editor in The New Yorker magazine's fiction department. The marriage lasted about a year. In 1981, he married Susan (Cullman) Sicher, whose grandfather was businessman Joseph Cullman and whose great-grandfather was businessman Lyman G. Bloomingdale. The Washington wedding was presided over by Federal judge John Sirica. In 1986, he married Judith "Judy" Pond, a painter and former Montana native.

In the mid-1990s, Kudlow entered a twelve-step program in order to deal with his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. He subsequently converted to Catholicism under the guidance of Father C. John McCloskey III.

Books

• American Abundance: The New Economic & Moral Prosperity, 1997-12-01, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-8281-1117-0
• Bullish On Bush: How George Bush's Ownership Society Will Make America Stronger, 2004-10, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 1-56833-261-0, authored by Stephen Moore and with comments by Kudlow
• Tide: Why Tax Cuts Are the Key to Prosperity and Freedom, 2005-09-30, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-072345-9 (audio CD)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]