David Malpass

David Robert Malpass (born March 8, 1956 ) is an American economic analyst and former government official who served as President of the World Bank Group from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs under Donald Trump, having served as an economic advisor to Trump during the 2016 U.S. presidential election; Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary under Ronald Reagan; and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush. He was chief international economist at Bear Stearns from 1993 to 2002, and chief economist from 2002 to the firm's collapse in 2008.

As of 2024, Malpass is Distinguished Fellow of International Finance at the Daniels School of Business at Purdue University.

Early life and education Malpass was born in 1956 in Petoskey, Michigan.

Career Early career From 1976 to 1981, Malpass worked in Portland, Oregon, as a contract administrator for Esco Corporation, a computer systems consultant for Arthur Andersen, and controller/CFO for Consolidated Supply. From 1984 to 1986, he was Senior Analyst for Taxes and Trade and International Economist of the Senate Budget Committee. He ran for the Republican nomination for United States Senate in the 2010 United States Senate special election in New York; he placed second in the three-way primary with 38% of the vote after former Congressman Joe DioGuardi's 42%. In 2012, he wrote a chapter titled "Sound Money, Sound Policy" in The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs, published by the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

Malpass has written regularly for Forbes and has been a contributor to the op-ed section of The Wall Street Journal. He is also a frequent television commentator.

In August 2007, before the housing market collapse that triggered the 2008 financial crisis, Malpass wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that "Housing and debt markets are not that big a part of the U.S. economy, or of job creation ... the housing- and debt-market corrections will probably add to the length of the U.S. economic expansion." In 2012, in the New York Times Economix blog, Bruce Bartlett cited Malpass's mid-2008 forecast of economic growth and his September 2012 forecast of recession as examples of partisan bias in economic forecasts.

During the Obama administration, Malpass frequently warned against quantitative easing, the preferred approach of the Federal Reserve during that time period; he said that it would inhibit growth.

Trump advisor On August 5, 2016, Malpass was announced as a senior economic advisor the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign. He appeared on television and radio to support Trump's message of faster growth through policy reforms. Four of his pre-election Forbes columns discussed the need for political reform or upheaval. His September 1, 2016 op-ed in The New York Times, "Why This Economy Needs Donald Trump", described potential faster growth through a policy upheaval covering economic policy, taxes, trade, and regulations. After the election, Malpass headed the transition team's work on economic policy and the Treasury Department.

Under Secretary of the Treasury

In March 2017, the White House announced Malpass as President Trump's nominee for Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Malpass was confirmed for the position by the United States Senate on August 3, 2017.

Malpass took a critical position on China during his tenure. In July 2018, he was described by Bloomberg News as "a champion of President Donald Trump's protectionist message".

World Bank President In February 2019, Trump announced Malpass as the nominee for President of the World Bank, succeeding Jim Yong Kim, who had announced in January 2019 that he would be stepping down three years prior to the end of his second five-year term. Malpass was unanimously approved by the executive board on April 5, 2019, and began his term on April 9. During the start of his tenure, Malpass focused in his early public comments on the global economy and debt transparency. He also stabilized the institution, and reorganized the disarray that had been left by his predecessor, Kim. By the end of 2022 he had nearly doubled the bank's lending from what it had been when he took over.

During his tenure, he led the World Bank in lending more than $150 billion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and rising food and energy prices. He also helped low-income countries achieve debt sustainability through debt reduction, and pressured China to provide more debt relief for developing nations.

On September 20, 2022, former U.S. vice president and environmentalist Al Gore labelled Malpass a climate change denier and called for Biden to replace him during an event focusing on climate change hosted by The New York Times. Malpass replied, "I'm not a scientist." This answer prompted criticism from climate policy makers such as Rachel Kyte and Mark Carney, and calls for his resignation from the Rocky Mountain Institute and Christiana Figueres, among others.

Additional posts In 2024, Malpass became Distinguished Fellow of International Finance at the Daniels School of Business at Purdue University, and the inaugural Fellow of Global Business and Infrastructure at Purdue@DC.

He is a former member of the board of directors of the National Committee on United States–China Relations, the Council of the Americas, and the Economic Club of New York, He was also formerly a member of board of directors of the New Mountain Financial Corporation.

Adele Malpass is the daughter of Herman Obermayer. She was appointed as the chairwoman of the Manhattan Republican Party in January 2015 and was elected to a two-year term in September 2015. , she was the president of The Daily Caller News Foundation, a non-profit organization linked with the eponymous news organization.