Product Description

Praise for THE PASSIONATE ECONOMIST

"In this powerful and insightful book, Diane Swonk brings economics to life. I highly recommend The Passionate Economist to anyone who wants to use the lessons of our past to create a better future."
-Charles R. Schwab
Chairman and Co-CEO
The Charles Schwab Corporation

"Leave it to Diane Swonk to put a soul in statistics. Diane figured it out a long time ago. People matter. Their fears matter. Their hopes matter. Their dreams matter. Diane takes us into a world never before explored by an economist . . . the real one. A great read. A great book."
-Neil P. Cavuto
Vice President, Anchor and Managing Editor
Business News, Fox News Channel

"Growing up in Detroit, Diane Swonk saw friends and neighbors suffer hardship as a result of layoffs and corporate downsizing. Leveraging her intimate knowledge of the Midwestern economy, Diane rose to the top of her profession, applying insights into human nature to predict financial markets, economic policy, and key shifts in the global economy. This powerful and personal story by one of America's leading economists shows how economics touches the lives of real people. It explains where the American economy has been and where it is likely heading."
-Janet Yellen
Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley
Former Governor of the Federal Reserve and former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102767 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"I put economics on the same level as some people practice religion," declares Swonk in this chronicle of her professional growth, from accidentally enrolling in an economics class as a college student to becoming chief economist at Chicago's Bank One. Clearly having thrived in her career, Swonk is particularly informative about the teamwork ethos she sees operating at the bank and the care with which her employees analyze the economy and market fundamentals of individual industries and sectors. Media-savvy in her ability to present her research results via compelling stories, she also explains how she became a regular commentator on such shows as Money Line with Lou Dobbs and Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week. Swonk mentions more than once that some regard her as an optimist because of her trademark confidence in the adaptability of the labor force and the essential resilience of the U.S. economy; her no-nonsense, Midwestern realist style comes across in shoot-from-the-hip remarks like "anyone who has heard Greenspan speak knows that he is still the master of saying very little in a lot of time and space." In addition to her memoir, Swonk is equally straightforward in bulleting her major policy points, forecasts and recommendations. In an unpretentious, clear format, she lays out a set of "Notes to Investors" and "Old Rules for the New Economy" that will be of great interest to general business readers who admire the author's refreshing outside New York perspective.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"I put economics on the same level as some people practice religion," declares Swonk in this chronicle of her professional growth, from accidentally enrolling in an economics class as a college student to becoming chief economist at Chicago's Bank One. Clearly having thrived in her career, Swonk is particularly informative about the teamwork ethos she sees operating at the bank and the care with which her employees analyze the economy and market fundamentals of individual industries and sectors. Media-savvy in her ability to present her research results via compelling stories, she also explains how she became a regular commentator on such shows as Money Line with Lou Dobbs and Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week.  Swonk mentions more than once that some regard her as an optimist because of her trademark confidence in the adaptability of the labor force and the essential resilience of the U.S. economy; her no-nonsense, Midwestern realist style comes across in shoot-from-the-hip remarks like "anyone who has heard Greenspan speak knows that he is still the master of saying I very little in a lot of time and space." In addition to her memoir, Swonk is equally straightforward in bulleting her major policy points, forecasts and recommendations. In an unpretentious, clear format, she lays out a set of  "Notes to Investors" and "Old Rules for the New Economy" that will be of great interest to general business readers who admire the author's refreshing outside New York perspective. (Publishers Weekly)

From the Inside Flap
Economics is one of the most powerful yet misunderstood sciences. Done well, sound economic policy decisions have improved the lives of millions. Done poorly, they have let corrupt governments abuse economic reforms, left vast populations in poverty, and created a breeding ground for envy and hate. At its very heart, economics is the study of collective human behavior, not some magic black box that doles out reams of forecasts or statistics that move the financial markets. It tells us more about how life will unfold on Main Street than Wall Street.

As the chief economist at one of the country’s premier institutions–Bank One–and as an advisor to policymakers around the world, Diane Swonk believes that economics is as much social policy as financial policy. In The Passionate Economist: Finding the Power and Humanity Behind the Numbers, Swonk skillfully reveals how economics is not a hard science, but a behavioral science built on the foundation of human activity. A Washington insider, she presents her extremely knowledgeable perspective on the Federal Reserve and the power of money, and offers practical advice that will help you make wiser decisions on where to put your money.

Swonk brings a unique and somewhat unlikely perspective on money and finance. As a woman in a high-level corporate position in a male-dominated industry, as a child who saw the ravages of poverty firsthand, and as a person with a learning disability, she sees more in economics than merely the moving and counting of currency. In economics, she sees a global force with the power to remake the world. In this book, she clearly presents her secrets to success and her informed views on economic policy globally and locally–all while bringing humanity back into the humanities that economists study.

Shifting from the individual and the seen to the large, theoretical, and unseen The Passionate Economist will help you:

• Understand the great expansion of the 1990s, what shaped it, and how those shifts laid the groundwork for its own undoing
• See the strategic and intuitive side of the science that is often depicted as dry statistics
• Realize how the events of September 11 reshaped our economic landscape, and could permanently alter the course of global economic freedoms

Economics is about data, but in The Passionate Economist, Diane Swonk explores the interaction of personal feelings and needs with numbers. This book will broaden your perspective on economics and the economy by examining its very roots. If you want to truly understand economics as well as make better decisions about your own portfolio, The Passionate Economist will show you how.

Customer Reviews

Impassionate Economist?
Logical Disconnect: She laments that there are fewer macroeconomists that have an overall view of the bigger picture; however, she then talks about the GDP and market economics as being the end all of economic theory. As another reviewer has pointed out, GDP does not measure many things -- e.g. education, externalities. In the US, market economics is more for smaller firms and foreign countries -- bigger corporations have more of a nanny state.

Good But Some Blind Spots
This is an interesting account of the career of a successful business economist. Diane Swonk puts plenty of passion into her economics, which is great. She's a good writer. Her call for more accurate economic statistics is well taken. I like her definition of economics as "the study of collective human behavior." She states one of her purposes as educating armchair economists; as a biochemist and patent attorney by profession, I certainly feel I have learned something from her.
The book's flaws are mostly in its assumptions. Ms. Swonk thrills to every tiny increase in GDP, but she never stops to ask what GDP really means. GDP by definition excludes any consideration of depletion of resources, costs of pollution, effects of population growth, or quality of life. GDP has its uses in making short-term business forecasts, but applying it more generally to say how the country's economy is going is questionable at best. More accurate measures of the U.S. economy, such as the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), tend to show that the amount of true economic growth per capita since 1947 has been fairly small, and that there has been little or no real growth since 1980. It strikes me as odd, therefore, that Ms. Swonk believes so sincerely that increasing GDP is the key to improving our country's prosperity. Most people's sense of economic well-being depends greatly on whether they're better off than others, so that trying to improve people's lives by continually increasing GDP strikes me as a squirrel cage to nowhere.
Ms. Swonk states that immigration is good for the economy, which I think is very questionable. Immigration may be good for business in the short term; in the long term it is simply subsidizing other countries by letting them export their population problems here. Ms. Swonk includes a push for more deregulation. I agree that deregulation is helpful in some instances, but where significant externalities exist deregulation is likely to make our country's economic situation worse.
Ms. Swonk's discussion of her personal life seems to show the same blind spot. She details her struggles dealing with an asthmatic son, but it never crosses her mind that polluted air could be affecting him.

Economic Events and Tips for Succeeding
?The lines between economics and who I am are often blurred,? writes business economist, Diane Swonk; and indeed, this is contributes to the charm, readability, and usefulness of The Passionate Economist. But let me get back to that later.

This book is of interest to business economists, and others, for at least two reasons. First, Swonk has had a successful career for almost two decades at Bank One in Chicago. Although the times were turbulent, she kept her same job and phone number through six chairmen and two mergers, she tells us. This book provides insight on how she did it and lessons for how we, in a highly competitive business world and tight job market, might do it. She advises us to ask the right questions, worry about how the world might change, and make economic analysis relevant for our firms. She describes how a successful economist operates?not just relying upon economic models, but using them in conjunction with other sources of information from clients, policy makers, and other economists. Use clients not only as customers but also as sources of industry information. Develop a deep pool of sources that can provide insights into economic policy issues and policy-making. Develop ties with the top economists in key industries and countries and draw upon their knowledge and information. Further, become an expert in the data, but use data with caution. Lay out a road map of where the economy will move next, what structural changes can be expected, and advise management so it won?t be surprised. She relates her experience forecasting the industrial Midwest economy and then the tactics she used to convince senior management of her views, ultimately influencing a change in the bank?s own strategy. She advises us to develop good rapport with the public relations person in our organizations. She also outlines her approach for getting her message across to the business press?among them, promptly return calls to press members and kick stories around with them (even if you aren?t a part of the story). All this helps in building relationships. She gives tips on how to become a good speaker?practice is essential, but the challenge is to connect with the audience; and she tells you how to do it.

Secondly, the book serves as a useful review and analysis of economic events over the past two decades and provides insightful interpretations. The book covers the 1980s, when Swonk began her professional career, to the present. Chapters 9 through 16 provide a narrative of these decades. Among the events that she discusses are the early 1990s jobless recovery, changes in credit markets, the low inflation/high growth of the 1990s, the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, the 1998 debt crisis in Russia and other countries, and the more recent U.S. asset bubble. She weaves in Fed policy actions through much of the narrative. Swonk compares the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 and demonstrates how they were not alike. She illustrates the importance of timely and quality data, noting that policymakers might have acted differently in early 1990 if they had better data: ?revisions, which did not occur until two years later, revealed that the recession was already well under way in the fourth quarter of 1990.?

The book overflows with practical advice such as five old rules for the new economy and reprints of Bank One reports including ?A Road Map to the Internet? and ?A Scapegoat or an 800-Pound Gorilla? on the global economy. The book identifies two structural changes that can help us analyze the economy going forward. Type I changes that ?have a fairly fast and dramatic effect [and] tend to be more cyclical than secular in nature.? Type II changes ?are rooted in long-term shifts in the economy.? While Type I changes are the focus of much attention, Type II changes are more important and easier to analyze. She gives a ?Structural Change Watch List? in Chapter 28. A bonus is an outlook for the economy over the next five to ten years in Chapter 30.

The book is not without controversy. Some readers may take issue with her characterization of armchair analysts and of MBAs complaining about lack of jobs, or her opinions about the quality of economic research and analysis. Others might have a different take on the interpretation of economic events. But the usefulness of the book to the business economist overwhelms these minor criticisms.

The Passionate Economist is partly a professional and personal autobiography. A discussion of the personal is necessary because it provides a framework for economic interpretation, as it does for most of us. It makes economics intuitive for her rather than abstract. And through the use of many personal anecdotes, the book also makes economics intuitive for us. She draws on experiences from her childhood family car trip to Mexico to the more recent September 11, 2001 terrorists attack at the NABE annual meeting, where she served as past president. She also uses brief biographies of friends and colleagues to illustrate her points.

There is no question that Swonk has a successful and rewarding career. She generously shares how she did it and offers helpful hints how we can do it.