Doug Henwood (born December 7, 1952) is an American writer. Until 2013, he published a newsletter, ''Left Business Observer'', that analyzed

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

from a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

perspective. He is a contributing editor at ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

''.

Early life and education

Henwood was born to Harold and Victorine Henwood in

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. The town is know for their pancake throwing contest held ...

, and grew up in Westwood, New Jersey. As a youth, he was acquainted with

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, but he briefly self-identified with

conservatism Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, Convention (norm), customs, and Value (ethics and social science ...

toward the end of high school. According to Henwood: "Sometime late in high school, I fell under the spell of

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and ...

and Bill Buckley, and about the first thing I did when I got to college was join the Party of the Right (POR). I got tired of all the pompous rituals, and political sanity returned, bringing me back to the left from which I'd started." Henwood received a B.A. in English from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1975. After college, he worked as secretary to the chair of a small

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

brokerage firm headed by a former

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

physicist who used quantitative analysis techniques in the mid-1970s, predating the later widespread adoption of similar methods on Wall Street. From 1976 to 1979, Henwood pursued a doctorate in English at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

, but left before completing his dissertation. He then worked for two years as a

copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...

and assistant to a medical publisher in New York.

Career

Writing

In September 1986, Henwood launched ''Left Business Observer'' (LBO) (). In 1992, Henwood worked with John Liscio on ''The Liscio Report on the Economy.'' In 2000, after Liscio's death, Henwood and Phillipa Dunne, a business partner, inherited ''The Liscio Report'' and continue to publish it. Henwood has written four books. His first, ''The State of the USA Atlas'' (1994), is a social atlas of the U.S. in the

Pluto Press Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Pluto Press states that it publishes "radical, left‐wing non‐fiction books", and is anti-capitalist and internationalist. It belongs to The Internat ...

atlas series. This was followed in 1997 by ''Wall Street'' (

Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review'' (NLR) and includes Tariq Ali and Perry Anderson on its board of directors. According to its webs ...

), in which Henwood describes the workings of high finance, and then by ''After the New Economy'' (

The New Press The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André SchiffrinReid, Calvin (December 2, 2013)"New Press Founder André Schiffrin Dead at 78" ''Publishers Weekly''. Accessed August 1, 2014. (Chev ...

, 2003), an analysis of the 1990s boom and bust. Henwood's most recent book is ''My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency'' ( Seven Stories Press, 2016). His articles have appeared in ''

'', ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'', '' Grand Street'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', and ''

Extra! ''Extra!'' is a monthly magazine of media criticism published by the media watch group FAIR. First published in 1987, its first full-time editor was Martin A. Lee. Since 1990, it has been edited by Jim Naureckas. The magazine covers a wide var ...

''. He is a contributing editor at ''The Nation''.

Radio and other media

Henwood began hosting the weekly radio show and podcast ''Behind the News'' in 1996. It is produced at

KPFA KPFA (94.1 FM) is a public, listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed o ...

and, formerly,

WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...

. Henwood had been a regular contributor to Samori Marksman's show starting in 1989. Notable guests include

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

, James K. Galbraith,

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist. He was the author of Christopher Hitchens bibliography, 18 books on faith, religion, culture, politics, and literature. He was born ...

, Lewis H. Lapham,

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician, diplomat, and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...

Joseph Stiglitz Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, political activist, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2 ...

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

Yanis Varoufakis Ioannis Georgiou "Yanis" Varoufakis (; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. Since 2018, he has been Secretary-General of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), a left-wing pan-European political party he co-founde ...

, and

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek ( ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distin ...

. On November 11, 2010, Henwood announced his retirement from ''Behind the News'' under WBAI''.'' In 2017, ''Behind the News'' was picked up by

Jacobin The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...

for its Jacobin Radio Podcast. Henwood appeared in Lapham's dramatic documentary film '' The American Ruling Class''.

Personal life

Henwood is married to journalist Liza Featherstone; they live in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

with their son. He is a member of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest Socialism, socialist organization. Sitting on the Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left of the politic ...

Books

Henwood has written four books and is working on a fifth. * '' State of the U.S.A. Atlas'' (1994), * ''

'' (1997), * '' After the New Economy'' (2003), * '' My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency'' (2015),

References

External links

Twitter account

''Left Business Observer''
(LBO)
LBO News (blog)

Free downloadable version of ''Wall Street''
* *
"Unconventional Wisdom: An Interview with Doug Henwood"
by Bhaskar Sunkara (''The Activist'', 21 February 2010)
"Ka-Pow! Bang! Crash! Down Goes Another Bubble!: Doug Henwood in Conversation with Christian Parenti"
''

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is an American publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics, based in Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, critics, and ...

'', (July–August 2009)
"Economic Unorthodoxy: An Interview with Doug Henwood"
(24 April 2004, '' Political Affairs'')
"The 'New Economy' and the Speculative Bubble: An Interview with Doug Henwood"
(''

Monthly Review The ''Monthly Review'' is an independent socialist magazine published monthly in New York City. Established in 1949, the publication is the longest continuously published socialist magazine in the United States. History Establishment Following ...

'', April 2001)
"The Marxist Wall Street couldn't ignore"
by

Annalee Newitz Annalee Newitz (born May 7, 1969) is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction. From 1999 to 2008, Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column called ''Techsploitation'', and from 2000 to 2004 was the culture editor o ...

, '' Salon.com'', December 1998
The Liscio Report on the Economy
by Doug Henwood and Phillipa Dunne
blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henwood, Doug American economics writers American political writers American business and financial journalists American alternative journalists 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists Newsletter publishers (people) The Nation (U.S. magazine) people Pacifica Foundation people Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from New York (state) American male journalists Yale University alumni Writers from Teaneck, New Jersey People from Westwood, New Jersey 1952 births Living people