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Maria Bartiromo (born on 1967-09-11 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American financial reporter, television personality, and author, best known for her work on the financial channel CNBC.
Maria's nicknames include "Econo Babe" and "Money Honey". She is 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) in height.
Biography
Bartiromo grew up in Brooklyn. As a teenager, Maria checked coats at her parents' Italian restaurant, at which her father was the chef.
She married Jonathan Steinberg, the son of financially-troubled former financier Saul Steinberg, on 1999-06-13.
Due to an appearance that somewhat resembles famed Italian actress Sophia Loren, Bartiromo was nicknamed the "Money Honey" and "Econo Babe" by tabloid newspapers during the boom years of the stock market in the late 1990s. She was voted No. 81 in the FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2003 list.
She is the subject of a song entitled "Maria Bartiromo" by Joey Ramone.
Career
Bartiromo graduated from New York University with a BA degree in journalism and a minor in economics.
Before joining CNBC in 1993, Bartiromo was a producer and assignment editor with CNN Business News.
Bartiromo was the first person, male or female, to report regularly live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. With CNBC she hosted their Marketwatch program from 10:00 to 12:00 ET, as well as being a regular contributor to Squawk Box for many years before leaving the morning program.
In addition, she has written monthly columns for Individual Investor and Ticker magazines, and she has contributed to NBC's The Today Show.
She has also made appearances on numerous non-financial television shows, including NBC Universal's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Caroline Rhea Show, and McEnroe, as well as guest-hosting on Live with Regis and Kelly.
Her first book was Use the News: How to Separate the Noise from the Investment Nuggets. She also wrote How to Make Money in Any Economy.
Bartiromo currently (as of 2006) anchors the Closing Bell show on CNBC from 15:00 to 17:00 ET. She also anchors and co-produces Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo, a CNBC show where she interviews prominent businesspeople, entertainers, athletes, and politicians.
Controversies
Nicholas Maier, a former employee of James Cramer, recounted in a tell-all book, Trading with the Enemy, how Cramer would feed rumors to Bartiromo, intended to affect the value of his positions when Bartiromo repeated them on the air. Cramer and Bartiromo deny the accusation.
Scandal also surrounded Bartiromo when she broke live on CNBC that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had told her at the National Press Dinner on 2006-04-29 that his position on interest rates was "misunderstood". This appeared to indicate that he would not be soft on inflation compared to his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, contrary to the thinking of most market analysts. Other members of the press, along with Bernanke himself, felt that the comments had been made off the record, and that by using her seemingly random seating position at the dinner, Bartiromo got access to market-making news which other reporters had no way of attaining (interest rates, and speculation on them, being a crucial price setting tool for many financial instruments).
As of late 2005, there were rumors she could leave CNBC at the end of her contract, possibly to move to FOX.