Governments have failed — mayors are the future

As Michael Bloomberg approached the end of his time as Mayor of New York, Americans expected him to run for the White House. He had the money, the profile and the ego to be President. But the problem, as it turned out, was his ambition — he had too much of it to settle for the Oval Office. As he put it: ‘I have my own army, the seventh largest in the world. I have my own state department and I don’t listen to Washington very much.’ His ambition, it turns out, was not to be the next President of the United States. He wants to be Mayor of the World.

Bloomberg is deadly serious. Since stepping down last Christmas he has recruited a hit team of government advisers who intend to travel the world giving advice on how to run cities. It is, in effect, a freelance Bloomberg mayoralty — a roaming consulting service for municipalities everywhere.