Bob Ivry is a senior editor of enterprise news for Bloomberg News, in New York City. Bob and I met through a mutual friend at Bloomberg when she found out about my interest in writing a book about the Federal Reserve. Bob and I corresponded and found that our interests were more aligned than we thought a journalist’s and a historian’s would be. After a couple of meetings and great conversation, Bob agreed to an interview for this book. The reason I was so interested in his story was the fact that Bob’s partner at the time, Mark Pittman was the only person to ever sue the Federal Reserve Board, and after his death in 2009, Bob took his place.

After a series of “crappy” jobs, which Bob believes gave him more insight into the real world than some journalists who get more traditional work right out of journalism school, Bob started out reading the news at KPFA radio in San Francisco. He was the sports guy for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, worked at the San Francisco Examiner, and made his way to the east coast as the movie reviewer for the New Jersey Record. After his first year there, 9/11 happened. Bob asked to do a story on the security of a nearby nuclear power plant, and the editor gave him the go ahead to work on it with a lead investigative reporter. The running joke in their offices was that this reporter was less than thrilled to share such an impactful story “with the fucking movie reviewer”. Bob’s foray into the field of investigative reporting brought him, in 2006, to the real estate team of Bloomberg News – when the banking collapse of Wall Street started to reveal itself, and Bob, furthering his education at Bloomberg, became a part of history.

The interview began with Bob refuting the most common misconception about the Fed; that it is part of the government. It is, as Ivry put it, “of the banks”. This is a particularly important distinction for journalists and members of the public who are trying to obtain information regarding currency, monetary and banking matters.