• Banker James Paul Warburg, 1896

 

Born in Hamburg, Warburg was educated at Middlesex School and Harvard University. He served in the Navy Flying Corps during World War I before entering a career in business. He was at the First National Bank of Boston between 1919 and 1921. Between 1921 and 1929 he was Vice President at the International Acceptance Bank. He was president at the International Manhattan Company from 1929 to 1931, then president of the International Acceptance Bank from 1931 to 1932. He was Vice Chairman of the Board at Bank of the Manhattan Company between 1932 and 1935.

While at the Bank of the Manhattan, he became financial adviser to President Roosevelt. This included acting as financial adviser at the 1933 London World Economic Conference.

Warburg left government in 1934, having come to oppose certain policies of the New Deal. He was opposed to political isolationism however, and re-entered government service in 1941 as Special Assistant to the Coordinator of Information, William Joseph Donovan. In 1942, when propaganda responsibilities were transferred to the Office of War Information, he became its Overseas Branch Deputy Director. He joined the Society for the Prevention of World War III, a lobby group working for a harsh peace for Germany.

In 1963, along with Sears heir, Philip Stern, he helped to found the Washington based Institute for Policy Studies.

Warburg married composer and musician Kay Swift in 1918, but they divorced in late 1934 as a consequence of her long involvement with George Gershwin. They had three daughters between 1919 and 1924. Warburg married his second wife, Phyllis Baldwin, in 1935. He and his third wife, Joan Melber, were married on September 6, 1948, and had a son Philip Neff Warburg. Warburg is also the grandfather of novelist Katharine Weber. Under the pseudonym Paul James he wrote the lyrics to Swift's 1929 hit song "Can't We Be Friends?" and their 1930 musical, Fine and Dandy, which introduced the song "Fine And Dandy".

Warburg was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He gained some notice in a February 17, 1950, appearance before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in which he said, "We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest."