Title Details

DIANE SWONK is the Director of Economics/Chief Economist and a Senior Vice President for Bank One Corporation in Chicago. Swonk currently manages the bank's Corporate Economics Group, has published several nationally acclaimed studies, and teaches for DePaul University's top-rated MBA program. She serves on several boards for both professional and civic organizations, and is a past president of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), a title Alan Greenspan shared. Swonk is seen regularly on network and cable television, and is often quoted in leading print media including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. She earned her master's in economics with honors from the University of Michigan, and her MBA with honors from the University of Chicago.

Foreword.

Acknowledgments.

Author's Note.

Introduction.

1. The Forrest Gump Syndrome.

2. Igniting a Passion.

3. The First in White-Collar Downsizing.

4. Doing Economics Right: A Road Map.

5. Tapping the Power with Applications.

6. Testing Our Credibility.

7. Getting Further Established.

8. Moving Out of the 1980s.

9. The "Jobless" Recovery.

10. Changes Under Way in Credit Markets and at the Fed.

11. A "Virtuous" Cycle.

12. Crisis at Home and Abroad.

13. The Second Shoe Drops.

14. Fertile Ground for Asset Bubbles.

15. Y2K and Other Monsters of 2000.

16. The Economics of the Internet.

17. Old Rules for the New Economy.

18. Applying Rules 1 and 2.

19. Hitting a Wall.

20. Applying Rule Number 3.

21. Risk Management at the Fed.

22. Benchmark Revisions.

23. A Scapegoat or an 800-Pound Gorilla?

24. The Quiet before the Storm.

25. A Recessionette?

26. A Fundamental Disconnect.

27. Framing the Outlook.

28. Structural Change.

29. A Shallow Pool of Answers.

30. Reading the Tea Leaves.

31. The Optimism and Devotion of the Young.

Appendix A: An Op-Ed Piece on the Enron Debacle.

Appendix B: Not a Profitless Recovery.

Appendix C: Revolutionary Monetary Policy.

Appendix D: Annable's Take on Executive Insecurities.

Appendix E: The Tug of War between Wages and Profits.

Index.

"I put economics on the same level as some people practice religion," declares Swonk in this chronicle of her professional growth, from accidentally enrolling in an economics class as a college student to becoming chief economist at Chicago's Bank One. Clearly having thrived in her career, Swonk is particularly informative about the teamwork ethos she sees operating at the bank and the care with which her employees analyze the economy and market fundamentals of individual industries and sectors. Media-savvy in her ability to present her research results via compelling stories, she also explains how she became a regular commentator on such shows as Money Line with Lou Dobbs and Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street Week.  Swonk mentions more than once that some regard her as an optimist because of her trademark confidence in the adaptability of the labor force and the essential resilience of the U.S. economy; her no-nonsense, Midwestern realist style comes across in shoot-from-the-hip remarks like "anyone who has heard Greenspan speak knows that he is still the master of saying I very little in a lot of time and space." In addition to her memoir, Swonk is equally straightforward in bulleting her major policy points, forecasts and recommendations. In an unpretentious, clear format, she lays out a set of  "Notes to Investors" and "Old Rules for the New Economy" that will be of great interest to general business readers who admire the author's refreshing outside New York perspective. (Publishers Weekly)