Robert J. Shapiro is co-founder and chairman of Sonecon, LLC, a United States private finance consultancy that has built a reputation on a range of economic policy issues, including climate change, intellectual property, and finance. He is known for warning of the dangers of naked short selling

Naked short selling

Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a financial instrument without first borrowing the security or ensuring that the security can be borrowed, as is conventionally done in a short sale. When the seller does not obtain the shares within the required time frame,...

. He has claimed that naked short selling has cost investors $100 billion and driven 1,000 companies into the ground.

Previously he was undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the administration of President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

, principal economic adviser to Bill Clinton in his 1991-1992 campaign, a senior economic adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry in their campaigns, a co-founder of the Progressive Policy Institute

Progressive Policy Institute

The Progressive Policy Institute is a think tank in the United States, founded in 1989 which styles itself as promoting the ideas of "New Democrats." It covers a very wide range of issues and describes itself as centrist, although progressive critics frequently describe it as conservative,...

, legislative director to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and an associate editor of U.S. News & World report.

In his Commerce Department position, he oversaw the major statistical agencies of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, including the Census Bureau while it carried out the 2000 decennial census.

Shapiro currently serves as an adviser to the International Monetary Fund, the Director of the Globalization Initiative of NDN, a political organization, and Chair of the Climate Task Force. He is also the co-chairman of the American Task Force Argentina, a group formed in November 2006 to encourage the Argentine government to repay more than $20 billion in delinquent sovereign debt, a member of the advisory board of the biotech firm Gilead Sciences, a director of the Ax:son-Johnson Foundation, a senior adviser to the public affairs firm Gilbraltar Associates, a fellow of the Georgetown University School of Business, and the Chairman of the Council for European Investment Security (CEIS).

He has a Ph.D. from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

 and Political Science, and an A.B. from the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

. He also has been a Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Brookings Institution, and Harvard University.