Joseph Arnold Livingston ( (1905-02-10) (1989-12-25)February 10, 1905 – December 25, 1989) was an American business journalist and economist known for his long-running syndicated economics column for which he received a Pulitzer Prize and three Gerald Loeb Awards.
[1] After graduating from De Witt Clinton High School, he studied English at the University of Michigan, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1925.
[2][3][4][5] Livingston returned to New York City to begin his journalism career as a cub reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle.
[5] In September 1929, Livingston began an investment club with some of his university friends, which quickly became underwater when the Great Crash shook the stock market a month later.
[3] Livingston joined the New York Daily Investment News, rising to executive editor in 1931, and wrote the "Talking It Over" column.
[8] Livingston put his journalism career on hold in 1942 to work as an economist for the U.S. government during World War II.
[5] In 1944, Livingston wrote a public affairs pamphlet entitled "Reconversion – the Job Ahead" and assisted in the production of two of the Board's "Critical Programs" reports.
[4] The following year, he began sending a detailed questionnaire to economists around the U.S. asking for their forecasts of several economic variables for the next six, twelve, and eighteen months.
[4] When the Record closed in 1947, Livingston moved to The Washington Post, where he started writing his semi-weekly "Minding Your Business" column.
[5] The column was renamed "Business Outlook" after a few months and was nationally syndicated later in the year, eventually being printed in over 70 newspapers.
[9] His research resulted in a six-part series entitled "The Powerful Pull of the Dollar" that earned him the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
[5][12] A 1970 column reporting on his six-week investigation into Howard Butcher and suspicious transactions involving Penn Central stock earned Livingston the 1971 Gerald Loeb award for newspapers.
[15] He wrote a 5-part series of columns in 1975 entitled "The Second Battle of Great Britain" on the country's economic difficulties that earned him both the 1975 Bache Halsey Stuart Award from the Overseas Press Club and the 1976 Gerald Loeb award for Columns/Editorial[16][17] In 1981, Livingston spent more than five weeks in Britain interviewing government officials, bankers, businessmen, labor leaders, workers, and members of Parliament for a five-part series entitled "English Lessons for America" that compared the U.S. and British economies and earned him the 1981 Overseas Press Club award for Best Business News Reporting from Abroad.
[5] He helped organize the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW), serving two terms as its first president in 1964 and 1965.