Assif Shameen speaks to one of the most recognisable faces in business journalism today — CNBC star anchor Maria Bartiromo

In her powder-blue power suit and Manolo Blahniks, microphone-toting Maria Bartiromo, with camera crew in tow, roamed ION Orchard on a busy afternoon last month, turning curious heads. Commuters streaming out of the Orchard Road MRT station into the mall stopped to take a closer look as she stood outside the Accessorize store barking the state of Singapore consumerism into the mike. Bartiromo may not be a big name locally, but over the years she has become one of the faces of the global stock-market boom.

Bartiromo, 42, is probably still one of the most recognisable faces in business journalism. Born and bred in New York, where her parents ran an Italian restaurant, she graduated from New York University with a BA in journalism and economics. After college, she joined CNN Business News and rose to become an assignment editor until she was lured away by the then fledgling business TV network, CNBC, for an on-screen role. In the 1990s, she became famous as one of the first reporters to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

A lot has changed since she started covering business two decades ago. The biggest transformation on Wall Street, Bartiromo reveals, has been “the explosion of information and the empowerment of individual investors”. The advent of the Internet and real-time information, the arrival of business TV channels like CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg TV and the financial media have been game changers. “What we have seen over the last decade is truly the democratisation of investors,” she says. “We have seen investors arm themselves with so much information, enabling them to make their own investment decisions.”

‘Class warfare’
More recently, of course, there has been the government’s increased role in the financial sector, she notes. Over the past 15 months, the US government has bailed out several banks through its Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and by back-stopping losses on troubled assets. While most banks have since paid back their TARP billions, they are still propped up by some form of government guarantees — implicit or explicit. Moreover, the US government still owns stakes in Citigroup, one of the 10 largest financial institutions worldwide.

The role of government, Bartiromo notes, has complicated things like the already complex compensation structure of Wall Street investment banks, which was always controversial. Even in financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, in which the government has no stake, there is pressure to comply with what the majority of its stakeholders, particularly ordinary Americans, want. “In the US, we have got real public outrage about compensation levels,” says Bartiromo. “In some cases, there is class warfare going on — Main Street versus Wall Street.”

With unemployment at the highest level in decades — and still rising — and profits surging at banks like Goldmans Sachs, US taxpayers are understandably upset. “The public is telling the banks: ‘Look, you got us into this.’ The finance sector just took on too much risk,” she says. The crisis has hit all Americans. “It impacts shareholders and stakeholders everywhere,” she adds. Because of that, “today, you have a much higher awareness of how banks operate. And, that’s a big change on Wall Street”.

Does that make the job of business news anchoring harder? “It’s not necessarily easier or harder,” she says. “It just makes it important for me to understand what the tone of the public is.” For her part, Bartiromo makes no bones about the fact that she sees herself not as a detached independent observer of finance but as a people’s champion. “Basically, my agenda is the investor’s agenda.” Indeed, her blog on CNBC’s website is called Investor Agenda. Over the years, she says, “I have had to look out for the interest of investors. Now, it’s also the [broader] public. I need to have an open mind in terms of what people are thinking, what people want to hear, so that I ask the appropriate questions on the show and cover the proper topics.” So, is it harder? “Not necessarily harder, but it’s certainly broader, in terms of who I am listening to and what my agenda is.”

The way she sees it, she and her financial journalist colleagues “are all trying to respond to what the tone of the public is”. “The truth is that you can’t really say the investor class is any different from the consumer class. Today’s investor class is much broader than it has ever been, because people have been investing now on a global basis for over 20 years.” Market upturns or downturns these days impact a much broader spectrum of people than they did two decades ago and that means the stakes are higher. “We all have our pension funds invested in the market or our [discretionary] funds,” she argues. Indeed, Bartiromo says in the wake of the recent financial crisis, business media “as a whole has to respond to a broader array of constituents”.

Back to basics
To be sure, business journalists and financial TV networks like CNBC took a lot of flak from investors as well as the general public during the past year for not reading the writing on the wall, as the economy took a turn for the worse, and for failing to predict the market downturn and the near-collapse of the financial system that followed. Bartiromo was the target of comedian Jon Stewart earlier this year for her interview with Merril Lynch’s ousted boss John Thain, in which she gushed: It’s amazing... we have had a lot of executives telling us their businesses are doing okay.” She won’t talk about Stewart, but says in her defence: “It’s very difficult to recognise that you are in a bubble when you are actually in it. Unfortunately, we have had a lot of bubbles bursting over the last 10 years — the dotcom bubble, the oil and commodities bubble and, of course, the housing bubble.”

Bartiromo admits journalists like herself could have done a better job being a little more sceptical at the height of the bubble. “One lesson to come away from the crisis is to make sure you go back to the fundamentals,” she says. “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. For journalists, it is important to look at things from all sides and be a contrarian or a sceptic. I was talking to [legendary investor and commodities guru] Jim Rogers in Singapore the other day about this and he said to me: ‘Maria, be a contrarian.’” She agrees with Rogers that journalists who want to retain a modicum of credibility and remain relevant during booms and busts need a hefty dose of scepticism.

Still, there is no denying that mistakes were made. “Over the last few years, we did miss a few things,” she concedes. But, while she and her peers may have missed the housing and dotcom bubbles, she asserts that “it’s not fair” to just criticise business journalists for overlooking the tell-tale signs. Indeed, she says it is ridiculous to criticise journalists who are merely messengers when no one — including top investment bankers, economists, the US Federal Reserve, even policymakers — saw it coming. “Journalists weren’t the only ones who didn’t see it coming,” she retorts.

How did the US get it so wrong? And who, if anyone, is to blame for the crisis? Bartiromo won’t point fingers or play the blame game but, when pressed, would only say: “Look at the Congress, where there was this major push to get people to realise the ‘American Dream’ of owning a home. Or look at [former US Fed chairman] Alan Greenspan, who kept rates low for so long or look at the consumers, who didn’t say ‘I don’t really have the money’ [to afford the home], but took on that million-dollar mortgage.”

Focus now on Asia
Bartiromo insists that as the US economy recovers, the debate will shift from who was to blame for the crisis to where the big opportunities are. Clearly, she says Asia, in particular the emergence of China and India, has become more of a global story and one that Main Street America is now enthralled with. For Americans, Asia is now the topic de jour, she says. “Business people all over the world are trying to figure out a way to break into China and investors want to find a way to participate in the very strong growth that we are seeing out of Asia.”

The TV anchor, who is proud of her “Money Honey” moniker, was impressed by what she saw in Singapore on her maiden trip here. “You have incredible infrastructure buildout that’s been taking place here, with the two casinos including the Marina Bay Sands, new malls and other projects like water,” she says. Stories like that of Singapore are increasingly “being heard around the world”, she adds, as TV networks and print media cover global business stories from India to China and Brazil. “Investors are trying to figure out how to invest or participate in these growth stories. That doesn’t mean they’d invest directly in China or India or Singapore, but perhaps in sectors or companies that are exposed to the broader global growth story.”

Are the CEOs, policymakers and investment gurus she meets or interviews more aware of the Asian story than they were before? “Absolutely,” she says. Take PepsiCo. “I interviewed Indra Nooyi, their CEO, recently. She just opened three factories in China and is planning to open another 13. Look at General Electric, [which is] trying to get a piece of the action in China in infrastructure and healthcare.” There are numerous global companies from the US and Europe that are trying to figure out how they can operate profitably in India and China. “Today, more than ever, in a world where we see an economy that is sluggish, at best, people are searching for growth,” she says. “And, there is no doubt that growth is coming out of Asia.”

One of the biggest changes on Wall Street over the last 20 years that Bartiromo has noticed is that markets are more global than ever before. “In addition to the investor revolution, where we have the democratisation of investing and information, you also have globalisation,” she says. For better or for worse, financial markets are now so tightly connected around the world that when something happens in New York or London or Beijing, it impacts everyone immediately, because everyone hears about it, explains Bartiromo. Moreover, individual investors today are increasingly investing outside their home markets as they seek to diversify their portfolios, she adds. Americans and Europeans are buying funds that have exposure to emerging markets. “Clearly, viewers today are more interested in the global story.”

Bartiromo herself has been pushing the global agenda at CNBC for years and has travelled around the world as the business network’s face. She is equally at home pushing US stories. “What I like most about my job is the urgency of news,” says Bartiromo. “I love following the markets and the economy. It is a subject that I find very exciting, sexy and interesting. I love talking to smart and successful business people. I don’t think I’d like covering politics or I’d be happy covering general news. And, I have to admit that I like the glamour of it as well. It’s interesting to look at these subjects and get educated about economies and markets globally, but it is also fun to have the glamour of television.”

She also had a regular column in BusinessWeek until last month, when it was acquired by Bloomberg, which among other things also runs a rival business TV network. She stresses that she is no one-trick pony. “I also have a blog; so, I have done print, Internet as well as broadcast.”

As one of the more prolific and visible business journalists in the world, Bartiromo has interviewed everyone from world leaders like President George W Bush to entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and policymakers like (US Fed chairman) Ben Bernanke and (former) US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson. She has also interviewed many of the success stories in the world, from rags-to-riches entrepreneurs to hard-charging, driven CEOs transforming their businesses. At global conferences like the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, top CEOs queue up for a few minutes’ air time with Bartiromo.

Three rules to live by
What would she say to a young reporter who wants to be the next Maria Bartiromo?  She pauses, then answers: “There are three simple rules that I have followed throughout my career: First, love what you do.” That’s important, she says, since “you don’t want to go into a field just because you want to become wealthy. You want to go into a field that you love, because then you can really work hard at it and, perhaps, be in the right place at the right time — maybe even get a little lucky along the way”.

Indeed, Bartiromo just finished co-authoring a book with best-selling writer Catherine Whitney that is due to be published by Random House’s Crown Business in March titled The 10 Laws of Enduring Success. “In the book, I talk a lot about the [successful people] that I have interviewed throughout my career,” she says. The one thing she learnt from them is that they are all passionate about what they do.

Her second piece of advice to a budding reporter is: “Work hard.” To her, you can’t take the easy way out in your work. “You don’t approach something by just getting by or taking a shortcut. You have to work hard.” That’s how she says journalists can build their reputation. “The third thing I would say is: Always do the right thing. We all know in our hearts what is the right thing to do.” In the news business, she says, “the most important thing you have is your reputation”. Budding young reporters, she believes, must not let anything sully their reputation as professional, dedicated, hardworking journalists with integrity.

How does “Money Honey” manage her own dough? To be sure, CNBC, like other business media, has very strict compliance rules in place to keep journalists from investing in stocks of companies they talk or report about. “I am not allowed to buy shares in individual companies,” she says. The only stock she owns is that of CNBC’s current parent firm, General Electric, which is in the process of selling NBC Universal, the media firm that controls the business news network, to cable TV giant Comcast. “I invest mainly in mutual funds and ETFs [exchange-traded funds],” she says.

It helps that her husband Jonathan, son of the famous 1980s corporate raider Saul Steinberg, runs Wisdom Tree Investments, one of the more aggressive issuers of ETFs. What’s her investment philosophy? “I believe in a diversified portfolio and investing for the long term,” she says. Bartiromo is often asked for investment tips. The only advice she is comfortable giving is that investors should focus on the long term rather than try to day-trade their way to wealth. “I don’t like the short-term trading mentality. I like to buy into things that are long term in nature,” she says before launching into a strong plug for ETFs: “ETFs represent a great opportunity for investors because they are transparent and tax efficient.”

Contrary to what you may have heard, Bartiromo will tell you that a business TV anchor’s life is “no bed of roses”. She and her colleagues put in a lot time and effort. Early in her career, when she had to be on the floor of the NYSE every morning, she often woke up at 5am, did her own make-up before her live TV appearance and regularly put in 12 to 14 hours a day. These days, she has the luxury of sleeping in until a little later, though not every day. “Honestly, I put in a lot of hours even now,” she confides. It’s a tough life. Some people can juggle long hours and personal life well, but she says she has not been very successful. “You know, I still haven’t really figured out the balance,” she shrugs.

Hectic schedule
These days, she does a two-hour live programme called Closing Bell from 3pm to 5pm and has a regular weekend programme titled The Wall Street Journal Report. There are other programmes — features, interviews, columns, books as well as appearances. “One day, I might get up at 5am because I have to do an early interview and on other days, I might get up as late as 8am and do interviews later in the day,” she says. She reveals that she still has a packed, hectic 10- to 12-hour daily schedule.

What does she do when she is not on screen? “I actually spend 80% of my time preparing,” she says. Calling people to line up interviews, doing off-the-record interviews or even just reading up is all part of preparation. TV anchors don’t want to appear ill-informed or caught off-guard during an interview, so they tend to over-prepare. “Most days, I might be done by 6.30pm or 7pm unless there is a business dinner, but really it’s a 24/7 life when you are covering markets and economies on a global basis,” she says. Business TV anchoring is certainly not an easy job, she notes, but adds, “I have pretty strong commitment to what I am doing.”

Clearly, she is more at ease being in the driver’s seat asking questions than answering them. “I let my work speak for itself,” she asserts. After nearly a week in Europe and six days in Singapore, where she hosted CNBC’s annual Asian Business Leaders Awards, she is already thinking about her hectic schedule in the US. While she has been to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau, her recent trip to Singapore was her first. “I had a wonderful week in Singapore,” she says as she gets ready to catch a flight back to New York. “I met a lot of business people, CEOs, bankers, people in government as well as the sovereign wealth fund here in Singapore. I have learnt a lot about Singapore and Asia in the last few days.” The one thing she says she will remember about Singapore is its malls. “I love your malls,” she enthuses.

At 42, Bartiromo still has many years of TV anchoring left in her. She expects to do more feature programmes in the coming years and has a contract with NBC Universal to form her own production company. Two years ago, she filed with the US patent office to trademark the “Money Honey” nickname — first coined by a New York tabloid — for products including piggy banks, cookie jars, jigsaw puzzles, colouring books and toy cash registers. Even as her face fades from the TV screen over the years, she is making sure the “Money Honey” brand will continue to thrive.


Assif Shameen is consulting editor at The Edge Singapore

This article appeared in Options, the lifestyle pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 788, Jan 11 – 17, 2010