The Wall Street bean counter who trashed America's global credit reputation is a New Yorker who never studied economics, majored in literature and philosophy, and has a master's in English lit.
Yet John Chambers, 55, who lives with his wife, daughter and two dogs on Riverside Drive, has became the stern public face of Standard & Poor's, the private agency that wreaked havoc Friday night by notching down the nation's credit to double-A from triple-A.
The decision by unlikely S&P big John Chambers, who has a master's in English literature, will have a huge impact on the world economy.
Chambers grew up outside Kansas City, Kan., and went to liberal Grinnell College in Iowa, where he was a star on the swim team, ranking eighth in school history in the 1,000-meter freestyle. After graduating in 1977 with a bachelor of arts in literature and philosophy, he went Ivy League, enrolling at Columbia University, where he got a master's degree in English literature. His first big job in finance seems to have been in the international department of European-American Bank, where he eventually rose from management trainee to vice president.
But it isn't clear exactly where Chambers' path took a sharp turn from a world of books and ideas to one of dollars and cents.
David Wargin, an S&P spokesman, told The Post that Chambers, a chartered financial analyst, chairs the agency's sovereign-rating committee, made up of "senior sovereign analysts" with various backgrounds. But Wargin wouldn't say whether the committee was in disagreement over the US downgrade. Chambers declined to be interviewed for this story, and his wife backed her man, telling The Post, "I go on the wisdom of the people involved, including my husband."
Find out more at http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/downgrade_doer_was_no_biz_wiz_KyeArXx2HeDSRdkjZx6VkM
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