[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 70 (Monday, May 1, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E888-E889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      BART ROWEN SET THE STANDARDS

                                 ______


                          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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