The story of a dreamer
Few on Wall Street have had the life experiences of Pete Peterson – billionaire, former head of Lehman Brothers, co-founder of Blackstone Group LP, and one-time butt of a joke by American diplomat Henry Kissinger.
Peterson, 83, has been on a glide path from Depression-era dust storms through politics and Wall Street to his current perch as an elder statesman who warns against fiscal irresponsibility.
He traces that path in his memoir The Education of An American Dreamer: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Learned His Way From a Nebraska Diner to Washington, Wall Street, and Beyond.
The diner was owned by his father, who won customers in the 1930s Depression by offering $5.50 (Dh20) worth of food to those who paid $5 in advance.
Peterson recalls unusual details from his early years, including being expelled for plagiarising a paper by Roy Cohn, who became Senator Joseph McCarthy's controversial counsel.
He rated himself a "B" for his eight years running photographic equipment maker Bell and Howell Corp, saying his failure to push it technologically offset success at boosting profit and revenue.
By 1971, he was assistant to President Richard Nixon on international economic affairs. A year later, he became commerce secretary, where he would come to recognise structural flaws in the Soviet economy in the early stages of detente.
Once, sitting next to actress Ingrid Bergman at a dinner, he wondered aloud why he got the honour.
Kissinger, a much more celebrated figure who once joked he was the only national security advisor with a fan club, replied that it was because he was unavailable. "Peterson," Kissinger said, "I'm leaving for Acapulco later on today. Why else do you think you're sitting next to Ingrid Bergman?"
After leaving the White House, Peterson spent a decade running Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc, leaving abruptly after a power-sharing pact with co-chief executive Lewis Glucksman broke down.
The author Ken Auletta has said Peterson spent 50 hours in 1984 patiently recounting his Lehman days for the book Greed and Glory on Wall Street.
But in his memoir, Peterson spends less than two pages on the 12 days of "furious negotiations" over his exit. He seems to pull his punches, saying the episode left him with only a "fair amount of ambivalence" and a "certain sense of personal betrayal" by Glucksman.
In 1985, Peterson co-founded Blackstone with Stephen Schwarzman, which had its initial public offering (IPO) in 2007. He retired as senior chairman last year.
The IPO netted Peterson more than $1 billion (Dh3.67bn), most of which he committed to his own foundation. He is now a vocal critic of wasteful spending and borrowing, and last year helped sponsor the documentary I.O.U.S.A.
But he does not condemn a lavish 60th birthday party for Schwarzman that is viewed as a symbol of excess prior to the credit crunch, saying only that it "often detracts" from Schwarzman's "many accomplishments".
He concludes with several pieces of career advice, among them to not be intellectually lazy, to choose battles carefully, to be true to one's own moral compass, and to balance one's business and personal life.
"Affirmation of one's work is great therapy," he says.
Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the daily Emirates Business 24|7 newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here