[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E888-E889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

BART ROWEN SET THE STANDARDS

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HON. JOHN J. LaFALCE

of new york

in the house of representatives

Monday, May 1, 1995
Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, On April 13, 1995, the pioneer of modern
economic journalism Hobart Rowen, died, leaving a legacy of standards
for the profession. International economic issues and events were Mr.
Rowen's specialty. Through five decades of dedication and innovation
devoted to economic journalism, Mr. Rowen reshaped the standards for
the profession by bringing the sometimes arcane issues of international
economics to mainstream America. He wrote so that readers could
understand and appreciate the importance of economic events and the
impact of international economics on their lives. Whether the subject
was international trade, monetary policy, or exchange rates, Mr.
Rowen's knowledge and journalistic style put him in a league of his
own. I most recently spoke to Mr. Rowen in February this year about the
Mexican peso crisis. His knowledge, insight, and willingness to
question traditional economic assumptions were clearly demonstrated on
this issue. Mr. Rowen will be missed, but his legacy to economic
journalism has set the standard for years to come.
Mr. Speaker, I am submitting for the Record, a copy of Mr. Rowen's
obituary that appeared in the Washington Post on April 14.

[[Page E889]]

Economics Journalist Hobart Rowen Dies; Reporter and Financial Editor
at The Post

(By Claudia Levy and Bart Barnes)

Hobart Rowen, 76, an economics reporter and editor at The
Washington Post who played an important role in bringing
coverage of business news and economics into the mainstream
of American journalism, died of cancer April 13 at his home
in Bethesda.
Mr. Rowen, a leading economics journalist for five decades,
joined the news staff of The Post in 1966. He was a pioneer
in bringing economic news to Page One and was known for his
ability to explain domestic and global economics in terms
that helped readers relate them to their own bread-and-butter
issues.
His work took him to conferences around the world, to the
boardrooms of industry and business and to the seats of power
in Washington and other national capitals. In his news
stories and syndicated columns, Mr. Rowen broke new ground on
such issues as fiscal and monetary policy, the implications
of appointments to the Federal Reserve Board and the actions
of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
``He was the first economics reporter of his generation who
could go to a press conference about economics and know more
than the guy who gave it,'' said Benjamin C. Bradlee, the
former executive editor of The Post, who hired Mr. Rowen ``to
bring the newspaper's business coverage from nowhere to
somewhere.''
When Mr. Rowen arrived at The Post, the paper's business
and financial staff consisted of one editor, two assistants
and a news aide, and most of its coverage was devoted to
promotions and retirements at local businesses. Today, The
Post's business section includes a staff of 55 with bureaus
in New York and Tokyo.
In addition to his work in print journalism, Mr. Rowen
appeared frequently on television broadcasts such as
``Washington Week in Review,'' ``Nightly Business News,''
``Meet the Press'' and ``Face the Nation.''
``We have lost one of this nation's preeminent economic
journalists,'' Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said
yesterday at a speech in Los Angeles. ``He was a leader in
bringing to the fore those issues which are so central to the
economic debate.''
Mr. Rowen was born in Burlington, Vt. He grew up in New
York and graduated from the City College of New York. In
1938, he joined the Journal of Commerce in New York as a copy
boy and nine months later was hired on as a reporter to cover
commodities.
He took courses at the New York Stock Exchange and wrote a
pamphlet on futures trading. He was assigned to the paper's
Washington bureau in 1941 to cover the new defense agencies
and show their interaction with business.
Mr. Rowen took a two-year break from journalism during
World War II to work as a public relations specialist with
the information division of the War Production Board.
In 1944, he joined the Washington bureau of Newsweek,
writing a business trends page for the magazine that
interpreted news for the business community. Until joining
The Post at the invitation of former Newsweek colleague
Bradlee, Mr. Rowen remained with the news magazine.
As financial editor and assistant managing editor for
business and finance at The Washington Post, Mr. Rowen
oversaw the launching of the newspaper's Sunday Business
section and an expansion of its business coverage. He
continued his column and broke many stories, including a
prediction that dollar devaluation and wage-price controls
would be imposed before those events occurred in 1971.
In 1967, he drew the wrath of the Johnson administration
with a story quoting a ``high government official'' to the
effect that costs of the war in Vietnam would rise sharply
above official estimates. It turned out later that the
unnamed official was William McChesney Martin, chairman of
the Federal Reserve Board.
Mr. Rowen returned to full-time writing in 1975, and in
1978, he was named international economics correspondent. He
said he found the beat increasingly important because in many
respects Washington, not New York or London, had become the
financial capital of the United States and of the world. He
covered the fluctuation of the dollar and other currencies,
third World economics, international trade and world economic
summits.
In addition to his twice-a-week column, ``Economic
Impact.'' he contributed to publications, including Harpers
and the New Republic.
His books included ``The Free Enterprisers: Kennedy,
Johnson and the Business Establishment,'' ``The Fall of the
President and Bad Times and Beyond'' and ``Self-Inflicted
Wounds: From LBJ's Guns and Butter to Reagan's Voodoo
Economics,'' published last year.
``Self-Inflicted Wounds'' told a story
of ``blunder, mismanagement, stupidity and
irresponsibility by officials whose chief obligation to
govern the nation was betrayed by their embrace of
politics misconceived and ineptly applied.'' This had led
the nation on a path of ``slow but steady self-
strangulation,'' he wrote.
In 1992, Mr. Rowen wrote for The Washington Post Health
section about the misdiagnosis of his prostate cancer that
led to incorrect treatment at Georgetown University Hospital.
He emphasized the need for a second opinion, even at the
nation's most prestigious medical institutions.
Mr. Rowen's honors included Gerald Loeb awards for best
economics column, for a piece on problems faced by the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and for
lifetime achievement. He also received the distinguished
service award for magazine writing from the Sigma Delta Chi
journalism honorary society.
He also received the John Hancock award, the A.T. Kearney
award and the Townsend Harris medal of CCNY. He was elected
to the Hall of Fame of the D.C. chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists and won the first professional
achievement award of the Society of American Business Editors
and Writers.
Mr. Rowen served on the Town Council of Somerset in Chevy
Chase from 1957 to 1965 and was president of the Society of
American Business Writers and the Washington professional
chapter of Sigma Delta Chi. He was a member of the National
Press Club, the National Economists Club and the Washington-
Baltimore Newspaper Guild.
Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Alice Stadler Rowen
of Chevy Chase; three children, Judith Vereker of London,
James Rowen of Milwaukee and Daniel Rowen of New York City;
and five grandchildren.

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