Larry Kudlow

Lawrence Alan Kudlow (born August 20, 1947) is an American conservative broadcast news analyst, columnist, journalist, political commentator, and radio personality.

He graduated from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, with a bachelor's degree in history in 1969.

Although his undergraduate qualifications and credentials pertaining to economics have been called into question as he completed only an undergraduate degree with a major in history (aside from his foreign policy coursework at Princeton), Kudlow claims that the particular history curriculum that he completed at Rochester dealt heavily with economic themes, especially pertinent to trade policy.

In 1970, while he was still a Democrat, Kudlow joined Americans for Democratic Action chair Joseph Duffey's "New Politics" senatorial campaign in Connecticut which also attracted an "A-list crowd of young Democrats", including Yale University law student Bill Clinton, John Podesta, and Michael Medved, another future conservative.

Duffey was a leading anti-war politician during the Vietnam war era.

Duffey's campaign manager called Kudlow a "brilliant organizer".

In 1971, Kudlow enrolled in the master's program at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, but he left before completing his degree.

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 the division of the Fed that handled open market operations.

In 1981, after previously volunteering and working for left-wing politicians and causes, Kudlow joined the administration of Ronald Reagan as associate director for economics and planning in the Office of Management and Budget.

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.

After leaving the Reagan Administration during the second term, Kudlow returned to Wall Street and Bear Stearns, serving as the firm's chief economist from 1987 until 1994.

During this time, he also advised the gubernatorial campaign of Christine Todd Whitman on economic issues.

In the late 1990s, after a publicized battle with cocaine and alcohol addiction, Kudlow left Wall Street to become an economics and financial commentator – first with National Review, and later hosting several shows on CNBC.

Kudlow was born and raised in New Jersey, the son of Ruth (née Grodnick) and Irving Howard Kudlow.

His family is Jewish.

He attended The Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, New Jersey, until the sixth grade.

He then attended the Dwight-Englewood School through high school.

In April 2005, New York Governor George Pataki included Kudlow in a six-member state tax commission.

In October 2015, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, in an email to supporters, attacked Kudlow as "a champion of big corporations and big money" despite Kudlow's not announcing a run.

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

Kudlow's name was floated by Republicans as a potential Senate candidate in either Connecticut or New York in 2016.

He dismissed CBO's estimate that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would increase the deficit by $1.3 trillion, saying, "Never believe the CBO. Very important: Never believe them. They're always wrong, especially with regard to tax cuts, which they never score properly."

Numerous studies of the tax plan, whether by non-partisan organizations, Wall Street analysts, or right-leaning research organizations, showed that the tax plan would increase the deficit.

He is a financial news commentator for Fox Business and served as the Director of the National Economic Council during the Trump Administration from 2018 to 2021.

He assumed that role after his previous employment as a CNBC television financial news host.

Kudlow began his career as a junior financial analyst at the New York Federal Reserve.

He soon left government to work on Wall Street at Paine Webber and Bear Stearns as a financial analyst.

In March 2018, Donald Trump appointed Kudlow to be Director of the National Economic Council, succeeding Gary Cohn.

He assumed office on April 2, 2018.

At the time, Kudlow said that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was untrustworthy.

In July 2018, Kudlow supported his earlier opinion that the CBO is not credible when he asserted, "Even the CBO numbers show now that the entire $1.5 trillion tax cut is virtually paid for by higher revenues and better nominal GDP."

The CBO later found that the tax cut reduced revenues and that the resulting deficits increased by $1.9 trillion after accounting for macroeconomic feedback.

Also in April, Kudlow alleged that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had announced that the U.S. would soon sanction Russia due to "momentary confusion".

After Haley contradicted Kudlow's claim, Kudlow called her to apologize.

In April 2018, Kudlow stated, "The trouble I had with the Obama [stimulus] program was it was all spending."

However, about 35% of the stimulus was tax relief, including a $116 billion income tax cut.

As Trump celebrated the five-month anniversary of the tax cut on June 29, 2018, Kudlow falsely asserted that the tax cut was generating such growth that "the deficit, which was one of the other criticisms, is coming down – and it's coming down rapidly."

Kevin Hassett, chairman of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, noted days earlier that the deficit was "skyrocketing", which is consistent with the analysis of every reputable budget analyst.