About Jeff

JEFF MADRICK is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books, and a former economics columnist for The New York Times.  He is director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Rediscovering Government Initiative at the Century Foundation, where he is a Senior Fellow; editor of Challenge Magazine; and visiting professor of humanities at The Cooper Union.

His upcoming book, Invisible Americans, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in January, 2020. His previous books, Seven Bad Ideas (2014) and the best-selling Age of Greed, were published by Knopf in  2011. His 2009 book, The Case for Big Government (Princeton), received a 2009 PEN Galbraith Non-Fiction Award.

He is also the author of Taking America (Bantam, 1987), and The End of Affluence (Random House, 1995), both of which were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Taking America was chosen by Business Week as one of the ten best books of the year. His book, Why Economies Grow (Basic Books/Century Foundation, 2002), emphasized the need for active public investment and a broader understanding of the causes of growth than was popular in academia at the time.

He has written for many other publications over the years,  including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Institutional Investor, The Nation, American Prospect, The Boston Globe, Newsday, and the business, op-ed, and the Sunday magazine sections of The New York Times.

Madrick gives many speeches and makes frequent public appearances. He has appeared on Charlie Rose, The Lehrer News Hour, Now With Bill Moyers, Frontline, C-Span, Book Notes, CNN, CNBC, CBS, BBC, and NPR.  He has also served as a policy consultant and speech writer for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and other U.S. legislators.

Madrick is a fellow of the World Policy Institute and is a member of the board of The Center for Economic and Policy Research.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Madrick had several positions in journalism, including serving as  Wall Street editor of Money Magazine, finance editor of Business Week Magazine and an NBC News reporter and commentator. His awards included an Emmy and a Page One Award.


Madrick was educated at New York University and Harvard University, and was a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard.

He is married to Kim Baker and lives in New York City.