Roger Lowenstein
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Author of the new "Ways and Means" (Now in Paperback) and of Buffett, When Genius Failed, America's Bank. Newsletter @ rogerlowenstein.substack.com.
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Articles by Roger Lowenstein
‘Over/Under’ Review: A Wager on America
Sports and gambling in the U.S. have long been intertwined. Several early team owners in the National Football League were horseplayers. If you’re concerned about the ubiquity of sports betting today, David Bockino says not to worry. In “Over/Under,” he argues that betting, which has been pervasive for as long as Americans have obsessed over balls and strikes, is a primary reason why sports became popular in the first place.
Podcast or Read? “Abraham Lincoln and the Role of Government in the Economy”
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy. « Back | July 5, 2026 2:02 pm I read Michael Klein’s (executive editor of EconoFact) conversation with Roger Lowenstein on the role of government in the economy. It is not terribly long. Maybe 10-15 minutes in listening and a bit longer in reading for me. I like to read as I dwell on what I read. Then I will go back and read it again to make sure I understand what was being said. Two options here.
‘How to Get Rich in American History’ Review: Active Investments
Financial lessons from the nation’s history as the U.S. reaches 250 years: take risks, don’t be afraid of debt, take in boarders if things get tight. Joseph S. Moore’s “How to Get Rich in American History” differs from other financial-advice books. Mr. Moore questions the popular notion that stocks generally rise. He has mixed feelings about the wealth-building potential of real estate, even though that is how he made his money.
Alan Greenspan Was Wrong About One Thing. It Was a Big One.
Alan Greenspan Was Wrong About One Thing. It Was a Big One. Credit...Stephen Jaffe/Reuters Mr. Lowenstein is the author of “America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve.” Whatever else, Alan Greenspan should be remembered for what is surely the rarest virtue among public officials: admitting error. The moment was Oct. 23, 2008. The American financial system was in tatters.
‘The Hardest, Longest Race’ Review: From New York to Seattle
The Ocean to Ocean Race pitted speed versus endurance in an age of undeveloped roads. Henry Ford felt his cars could compete with luxury brands. The Ocean to Ocean Race of 1909 featured a pair of Ford Model Ts. The Henry Ford In 1909, the Automobile Club of America staged a cross-country auto race to arouse popular interest in what was still a mode of transportation mostly for the affluent.
'Football' review: Skin in the game
Roger Lowenstein On Dec. 28, 1958, my father and his older brother Dick went to Yankee Stadium to watch the National Football League championship game. They must have paid about $5 each for tickets. Throw in the price of a couple of hot dogs and they got their money's worth. The hometown Giants trailed for most of the game but took the lead in the fourth quarter, only to see the visiting Baltimore Colts tie the score on a field goal shortly before time expired.
‘Football’ Review: Skin in the Game
Professional football is at the center of 21st-century American culture. A list of the most-watched television shows is dominated by NFL games. Sam Huff of the New York Giants blocks a kick by Steve Myhra of the Baltimore Colts during the 1958 National Football League championship game at Yankee Stadium. Bettmann Archive On Dec. 28, 1958, my father and his older brother Dick went to Yankee Stadium to watch the National Football League championship game. They must have paid about $5 each for tickets.
‘Football’ Review: Skin in the Game
Professional football is at the center of 21st-century American culture. A list of the most-watched television shows is dominated by NFL games. Sam Huff, of the New York Giants, blocks a kick by Steve Myhra, of the Baltimore Colts, at the 1958 National Football League championship game at Yankee Stadium. Bettmann Archive On Dec. 28, 1958, my father and his older brother Dick went to Yankee Stadium to watch the National Football League championship game. They must have paid about $5 each for tickets.
Jerome Powell’s Thankless Rescue of Trump Original
When historians eventually study whom Donald Trump treated worse—his enemies or his friends and loyal servants—the sad case of Jerome Powell will weigh heavily on the scales.
‘The Baron of Wall Street’ Review: A Profitable Pose
Now forgotten, Dillon, Read & Co. typified the Wall Street of roll-top desks and patrician dignity. Its bankers were Harvard and Princeton men. They rode to work in Rolls-Royces and adhered to a Protestant ethic of noblesse oblige. When Clarence Dillon, who took the helm after World War I, died in 1979 at the age of 96, the New York Times recalled him as “a leading financier . . .
Intrinsic Value by Roger Lowenstein
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WSJ: Miks ja kuidas USA kapitalism kõigist teistest erineb
Ameerika kapitalismi lõi Ameerika demokraatia, kirjutas suure depressiooni ajal sündinud ajaloolane Gordon Wood. Võiks minna ka kaugemale: meie kapitalistliku süsteemi unikaalne tugevus peegeldab meie poliitilist ideaali. Kõikidele võimalusi pakkudes julgustab ta tarmukat konkurentsi. Lubades teenetel trumbata üle juurdunud eliidid, motiveerib ta üksikisikuid jõukusele jõudma. Neist ideedest kinni pidamine on küll kõikunud (kuni 20.
How—and Why—U.S. Capitalism Is Unlike Any Other
American capitalism was created by American democracy, wrote Gordon Wood, the Depression-born historian. One can go further: The unique strength of our capitalist system mirrors that of our political ideal. By offering opportunity to all, it fosters vigorous competition. By permitting merit to trump entrenched elites, it motivates individuals with the plum of fortune.
New Blood On the Court
The Wall Street Journal | August 25, 2025 Mr. Lowenstein is the author of "Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War." Changeover By Giri Nathan Gallery, 272 pages, $28.99 Constellations of brilliance tend to be fleeting. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were succeeded by mere mortals. Giri Nathan's "Changeover" is about the tennis world's latest phenoms and abo This story is from the August 25, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Q&A: Tariffs are bad, says this economist - but it’s complicated
On a cold day in February 1999, a crowd gathered at Georgetown University to protest the tide of globalization that was reshaping much of the world. Some of their targets, like international trade, might seem familiar today, but the protesters would not have fit in at a Trump rally. They were young and firmly on the left.
Policy or Cudgel? A Trade Economist on Trump’s Hardball Tariffs.
On a cold day in February 1999, a crowd gathered at Georgetown University to protest the tide of globalization that was reshaping much of the world. Some of their targets, like international trade, might seem familiar today, but the protesters would not have fit in at a Trump rally. They were young and firmly on the left.
‘The Spinach King’ Review: It Runs in the Family
C.F. Seabrook pioneered new agricultural processes and built his father’s farms into a major corporation along the way. He had a harder time sharing the reins with his son Back when New Jersey was manifestly a “garden state,” Seabrook Farms, working day and night in floodlit fields, could produce a million peas in 24 hours. Charles F. Seabrook, its creator, was often called “the Henry Ford of agriculture.” Mechanization and technology were his gods.
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Taking the Measure of Warren Buffett
After six decades of pearly wisdom and investment gems, the news from Omaha hit like a thunderbolt. As a fellow shareholder emailed me after Warren Buffett announced on Saturday that he would retire at the end of the year as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, "Even though we knew it was inevitable, Warren's announcement today came as a shock to the system." In an age of insecurity, Mr. Buffett was an anchor of endurance.
Resold numerous times and reflagged in multiple tax havens, a barge becomes a metaphor for the stateless quality of global trade. Thanks to Donald Trump, the world has been getting a crash course in antiglobalism from a populist-right perspective. Perhaps the singular merit of Ian Kumekawa’s “Empty Vessel” is to remind us that, before President Trump steamrolled the news cycle with tariffs, globalism was already a well-established whipping post on the populist left.
The Market Check
In Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman argued that free markets were as essential to democracy as free elections. We are putting the great economist’s theory to the test. One after another of America’s checks and balances are performing poorly. The Congress is unwilling and seemingly afraid to vote against the President. The Cabinet is made up largely of sycophants who have no basis for office other than loyalty to the President, and therefore express no independent voice.
Sebastian Mallaby on Finance’s Intellectual Adventure Stories
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein In 1998, the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after it lost a complex series of bets that it had made, using borrowed money, on global bond markets. These bets generally worked out fine in calm times, but not if something unexpected happened—as it did that summer, when Russia defaulted on its sovereign debt. L.T.C.M.’s collapse would have been easy for a writer to demonize in a crude way.
Democrats in the Wilderness
Democrats have their work cut out for them. Donald Trump’s hunger to remake the federal government and his in-some-instances offensive cabinet selections will tend to push the party into its natural corner: reactive and oppositional. The party can assume its well-worn cloak as Trump’s magnetic opposite, the same suit it has worn for the past eight years. But merely being not Trump, or being against him, fails two necessary tests. It fails politically, as Kamala Harris can attest.
The Money Vanishes
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‘Savings and Trust’ Review: The Money Vanishes
In the final weeks of the Civil War, President Lincoln granted a charter to the Freedman’s Bank, believing it would be a bootstrap for emancipated black Americans. In “Savings and Trust,” Justene Hill Edwards tracks the bank’s hopeful beginnings and sorry collapse, bringing welcome attention to a little-explored aspect of the Reconstruction Era. Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank W. W.
Massachusetts Schools On the Ballot
Massachusetts prides itself on education, but about a decade ago, scores on standardized tests began to fall. Then the pandemic hit and scores plunged—and five years later, students still perform worse than they did in 2019. But never fear. The Massachusetts Teachers Association has proposed a solution—end the requirement that to graduate, students pass a statewide exam. If “Question 2” passes a referendum on the ballot in November, no student need fear failure as a reason for not graduating.
The Digest #215
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.
Opinião | O míope populismo econômico de Kamala Harris e Donald Trump
Em seu discurso sobre política econômica em Raleigh, na Carolina do Norte, neste mês, Kamala Harris disparou um lindo refrão que esculachou uma certa proposta de política definindo-a como nada além de um “imposto nacional sobre as vendas” ao povo americano, que aumentaria os preços de “produtos cotidianos e necessidades básicas” e custaria a uma família típica US$ 3,9 mil.
The Short-Sighted Economic Populism of Harris and Trump Original
At her speech on economic policy in Raleigh, N.C., this month, Kamala Harris uncorked a beautiful riff that slammed a certain policy proposal as nothing more than a "national sales tax" on the American public, one that would raise the price of "everyday products and basic necessities" and cost the typical family $3,900. For once, a presidential candidate was speaking like an economist - or at least, a practical policymaker with a realist's grasp of supply and demand.
‘Decade of Disunion’ Review: The Road to Falling Apart
A good way to present the Civil War as inexorable is to home in on the events that led to it. Robert W. Merry’s “Decade of Disunion” distills the march toward war through a series of extraordinary political battles: from the violent clashes between pro- and antislavery settlers in the territory of Kansas to the near-fatal caning of a U.S. senator in the upper chamber of Congress.
The Dark Protectionism of Trump and Vance
These Two Gentleman Love Tariffs These Economists Were Free Traders David Ricardo (left), and Adam Smith, Donald Trump’s anointment of J.D. Vance, a fellow ideologue now his veep nominee and intellectual Sancho Panza, confirms that, if elected, Trump’s signature economic policy will continue through the next four years and conceivably beyond. This is the policy that most defines Trump and that represents his greatest potential for economic harm.
‘Warren and Bill’ Review: Buffett and Gates Give It Away
Friendship guided Warren Buffett’s decision to give so much money to Bill Gates’s foundation. So did a skepticism toward inherited wealth. In 1957 an investor named Warren Buffett wrote to a friend that he was troubled by the question of how to bequeath his fortune. He was only 26 and had no fortune, but he was confident he would amass one and was vexed by the problem of how much to leave to his children and what to do with the balance.
The Un-Education of American Students
I marched in my share of anti-war protests—Vietnam of course—but always with a nagging doubt. Not the cause; I was against American escalation in Indochina, and that view held up. It was the chants. Lyndon B. Johnson was President. “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids you kill today?” Ok, I mostly persuaded myself, it was a fair (if unkind) barb. Followed by: “One, two, three, four; we don’t like your dirty war.” Totally apt.
It Hurts to See Biden Imitating Trump on Trade Original
Waving the flag as he heads into election season, President Biden is opposing the acquisition of U.S. Steel, a once-great steel maker headquartered in Pittsburgh, by a bigger and stronger Japanese company, Nippon Steel. "I told our steel workers I have their backs, and I meant it," Mr. Biden said in a statement.
The Digest #191
In The State of the Culture, describes the powerful dopamine loop that can lead to addiction. An individual is subjected to a stimulus which results in a mental reward through the release of dopamine, a hormone secreted into the bloodstream. This creates a feeling of pleasure but quickly dissipates leaving the person seeking more. This loop can lead to habit formation and, eventually, full blown addiction.
The Lessons of Abe’s Outlook
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‘Our Ancient Faith’ Review: The Lessons of Abe’s Outlook
Writing in the shadow of what he knows are despairing political times—the brink of a presidential contest that few seem to want—Allen Guelzo offers us the solace of Abraham Lincoln’s belief in democracy. In “Our Ancient Faith,” the eminent Lincoln scholar delivers a rebuke to “Lincoln haters” and to ideologues for whom Lincoln is no longer celebrated as the emancipator but, often, branded with the scarlet letter of racism.
The G.O.P.'s 'Nasty' New Religion
We've spent the past few days deconstructing what happened at the Iowa caucuses. I'm still stuck on what happened before: We saw just how faithfully the Republican Party now worships at the church of nasty. Just how fully it genuflects before the great god of nastiness, Donald Trump. I don't mean by supporting and voting for him, though there's that. I mean by idolizing and emulating him. By accepting as catechism his perverse moral logic.
The G.O.P.’s ‘nasty’ new religion
For subscribers January 18, 2024 Ben Wiseman If you missed the previous newsletter, you can read it here. Bullying is boldness. Spite is strength. Contributing Opinion Writer We’ve spent the past few days deconstructing what happened at the Iowa caucuses. I’m still stuck on what happened before: We saw just how faithfully the Republican Party now worships at the church of nasty. Just how fully it genuflects before the great god of nastiness, Donald Trump.
King no fue un Mesías solitario
Casi 56 años después de su muerte, el reverendo Martin Luther King Jr. se distingue de los demás líderes de derechos civiles del siglo XX. Fue el más visible, el más escuchado y visto en televisión y, en muchos sentidos, el más creativo en su enfoque de la lucha contra el apartheid estadounidense. King cobró tanta importancia en su época que alimentó la paranoia del director del FBI, J.
Los votantes de Trump y la economía
¿Por qué Donald Trump sigue generando tantas encuestas entre los votantes? Por más desagradable que sería un segundo mandato de Trump, muchos expertos que abordan esta cuestión han ignorado un hecho sorprendente: el nivel de vida del hogar típico mejoró durante los tres años de Trump antes de la pandemia. Bajo el presidente Biden, los estadounidenses (en el mejor de los casos) han luchado por mantenerse a la altura de la inflación.
‘The Money Kings’ Review: After Success, an Uneasy Feeling
Jacob Schiff was the most important Jewish financier of the pre-World War I age. The breadth of his philanthropy was staggering. For American Jews, the period from the 1880s up to World War I was heady but full of foreboding. While German-Jews amassed fortunes on Wall Street, Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe poured into Ellis Island fleeing lethal pogroms.
Book Review: ‘Ours Was the Shining Future,’ by David Leonhardt
Book Review|Is the American Dream More Dead Than Alive? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/books/review/ours-was-the-shining-future-david-leonhardt.html Nonfiction In “Ours Was the Shining Future,” the New York Times writer David Leonhardt dissects the country’s record on prosperity, arguing that progressive policies are best suited for achieving our ideals. Oct.
‘Klan War’ Review: The Agony After Appomattox
The early Ku Klux Klan emerged as a secret society that performed street theater before evolving into a hierarchically structured white-supremacist organization. No period in American history is hotter than Reconstruction, when civil rights for emancipated slaves were established in law and deed only to be tragically eviscerated. In “Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction,” Fergus Bordewich focuses on an especially violent chapter of the late 1860s and ’70s.
Ecosia adds a train travel search tool powered by Omio
Looking to ride the tracks of increasing demand for longer distance train travel that's being fuelled by climate-concerned consumers seeking to shrink the environmental impact of their trips, tree-planting search engine Ecosia and multimodal travel booking platform Omio have partnered to launch what they're billing as a "tree-planting rail travel booking tool".
The Digest #157
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A federal judge has blocked the White House's new rules for people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, handing a win to left-wing immigration groups. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar-an Obama appointee-in Northern California found the rules unlawful because the mandate imposes conditions that Congress did not intend.
The Digest #157
For more on Mortimer J. Adler: How to Read a Bookby Mortimer J. Adler (1940) How to Mark a Bookby Mortimer J. Adler, July 6, 1941 Review of How to Read a Book, November 13, 2015 (The Rational Walk) William F. Buckley Jr. Interviews Mortimer J. Adler, March 13, 1970 (Firing Line) Purchasing a paid subscription is the best way to support our work and to receive all new articles as soon as they are published. In addition, paid subscribers gain access to a growing archive of premium content.
The Misuse of ‘Equity’
A fracas has erupted in my home city, Cambridge, Ma., over a seemingly small matter—who can qualify for advanced middle school math? It is actually a large issue, or Cambridge Public Schools have made it so, because their answer, stunningly, is “no one.” Prior to the pandemic, Cambridge stopped offering advanced math in grades six through eight. Its explicit aim was to reduce disparities between low-income Blacks and Hispanics (who were under-represented in such classes) and whites and Asians.
Lebanon: Internal, External Agreements
Lebanon: Internal, External Agreements https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4373331/mustafa-fahs/lebanon-internal-external-agreements Friday - 9 June 2023 From the Lebanese local agreement, represented by the nomination of former Finance Minister Jihad Azour to the post of President of the Republic by the majority of the opposition forces and some of the ruling parties, to the appointment of the Elysée of former French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as its presidential envoy to...
Iraq and Tehran’s Illusions
Iraq and Tehran’s Illusions https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4372806/amir-taheri/iraq-and-tehran%E2%80%99s-illusions Friday - 9 June 2023 In the past two decades, that is to say since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Baghdad, a new discourse has developed in which post-Saddam Iraq is depicted as part of an empire being built by the Khomeinist regime in Tehran.
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