Altman, Daniel 1974–

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Altman, Daniel 1974–

PERSONAL:

Born August 21, 1974. Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1996, Ph.D., 2000.

ADDRESSES:

Home— New York, NY; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Hong Kong.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, columnist, and economist. Economist, economics correspondent. Served as an economic advisor to the British government.

WRITINGS:

Neoconomy: George Bush's Revolutionary Gamble with America's Future, Public Affairs (New York, NY), 2004.

Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2007.

Author of economics columns,New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.

Author of daily blog, "Managing Globalization," for the International Herald Tribune.

Member of editorial board,New York Times.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author, journalist, and economist Daniel Altman is a regular columnist and frequent writer on economics issues both in the United States and abroad. With a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, he began his career in London, England, as an economics correspondent for the magazine Economist. In 2001, at the age of twenty-six, and after only a year of journalistic experience at the Economist, Altman was appointed to the editorial board of the prestigious New York Times. There, "his job will be to write unsigned pieces that represent the institutional opinion of the paper," noted American Prospect contributor Leah Platt. Though Altman's appointment to the New York Times ' board generated some controversy, by all accounts his tenure there has been successful.

Altman sounds an urgent alarm for the economic future of the United States in Neoconomy: George Bush's Revolutionary Gamble with America's Future. In the book, Altman presents evidence that the Bush "administration is taking a far-too-risky gamble with America's economic well-being, while simultaneously remaking the American social contract in a way few voters would have ever approved," remarked Mother Jones contributor James Surowiecki. Altman offers "a brief but startling account of the Bush administration's stealthy efforts to bring about a ‘neoconomy’: a society, that is, in which all saving and wealth is untaxed," commented Dan Rosenheck in the New Statesman. In this sort of economy, powered by tax cuts and changes in the way accumulated wealth is taxed, there will be little to no taxation on savings, investments, stocks and bonds, and other instruments of income generation that do not rely on active work and participation in the day-to-day economy. In theory, Altman notes, this scheme would free up enormous amounts of capital and generate a tremendous expansion of the economy. However, Altman perceives that the reality of the situation would be quite different. "The truly alarming thing, in fact, is that if you cut taxes on the rich, and keep increasing government spending—as the Bush administration has done, not just on security and defense, but on almost everything—then the only way to make up the difference is to raise taxes on everyone else," Surowiecki observed. This shift in the method of generating tax revenue would eventually mean that the wealthy would find themselves making little or no contribution whatsoever to the economic upkeep of the country—the burden of generating the revenue necessary to run the United States would fall squarely on the backs of the middle class and the working poor, whose tax rates would have to increase astronomically to make up for the contributions that the wealthy would no longer be required to make. "Indeed, it seems the whole point of the Bush tax cuts has been to transfer tomorrow's tax burden from investors to workers, from the affluent to the middle class," Surowiecki mused. To observers such as Rosenheck, Bush's efforts seem designed to reinstate a form of onerous feudalism, where the wealthy few are supported and sustained by the labor and efforts of the working majority. Insidiously, "Bush's fiscal policies are quietly feudalising a country founded on social mobility," Rosenheck remarked, concluding that "Altman has provided a valuable service by putting [this concept] back in the spotlight."

In Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy, Altman "promises to use his formidable knowledge and access to take readers beyond stock market indexes and into the inner workings of the global economy," remarked Stephen Kotkin in the New York Times. To do so, Altman focuses on the international economic activity of a single typical day—June 15, 2005—and explores the larger global issues and economic functions represented by fourteen individual announcements, events, and business deals that occurred that day. By using this approach, Altman is able to assemble the many strands of international business and present an overview of how many seemingly disparate events fit together on the global economic stage. He covers topics such as the need for consistency among international regulations; the global effects of government corruption in developing economies; the pressures of dealing with an unsavory government in Intel's attempts to make business progress in Vietnam; the drastic differences between the economies of Middle Eastern countries Turkey and Syria; the booming economy of China; labor troubles and difficulties with recruiting qualified employees; and more. "Altman uses each story as a window on a crucial market: stocks, credit, currencies, oil, etc. He presents information in accessible language," noted a Kirkus Reviewscritic. His work stands as "an informed, accessible, and balanced treatment of our new cross-border realities," observed Mike Godwin in a Corporate Counsel review. Connected "is a useful guide to imagining how globalization with a human face might still come to be," commented Michael Stern in the American Lawyer. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that "Altman's overview of the world's economic workings is useful and informative," while the Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that the book is "invaluable reading" for those interested in gaining a basic knowledge of how globalization works.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Lawyer, May, 2007, Michael Stern, review of Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy, p. 93.

American Prospect, July 30, 2001, Leah Platt, "Right Place, Right Times," profile of Daniel Altman, p. 9.

Bulletin with Newsweek, July 17, 2007, Rachel Hills, review of Connected, p. 61.

Business 2.0, August, 2004, "To Cut or Not to Cut?," p. 18; October, 2004, Charles Loughhead, "Wealth vs. Health," p. 27.

Corporate Counsel, September, 2007, Mike Godwin, review of Connected, p. 145.

Financial Times, July 14, 2007, Mario Pisani, "All in a Day's Work: A New Book on Globalisation Looks at 24 Hours in the Life of the World," review of Connected, p. 33.

Harvard Business Review, October, 2004, John T. Landry, review of Neoconomy: George Bush's Revolutionary Gamble with America's Future, p. 32.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2007, review of Connected.

Mother Jones, November 1, 2004, James Surowiecki, "A Bad Bet," review of Neoconomy, p. 89.

New Statesman, October 25, 2004, Dan Rosenheck, "Back to Feudalism," review of Neoconomy, p. 53.

New York Times, June 3, 2007, Stephen Kotkin, "A Day in the Life of an Interconnected World," review of Connected, p. 6.

Publishers Weekly, March 19, 2007, review of Connected, p. 53.

Recorder, August 31, 2007, Mike Godwin, review of Connected.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2004, review of Neoconomy, p. 89.

Times Higher Education Supplement, January 21, 2005, Howard Davies, "Ideological Flutter Risks the Wealth of Nations," review of Neoconomy, p. 24.

Washington Post Book World, August 2004, Tom Gallagher, "Economic Issues: The Unkindest Cut," review of Neoconomy, p. 4.