Business Columnist, The New York Times & Author
James B. Stewart: Biography at a Glance
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author James B. Stewart combines the skills of an investigative reporter with the style of a novelist to examine the top stories in finance, politics, and law.
- The San Francisco Examiner called him “the journalist every journalist would like to be,” and The Daily Beast named him one of the 15 “most important writers on business and economics.”
- Stewart is a captivating speaker with powerful insights on ethics and leadership, Wall Street and corporate responsibility. Drawing from the last three decades of the U.S. business, legal, and political scenes, he brings both social and political context to the major events shaping American society.
Media
Biography
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author James B. Stewart combines the skills of an investigative reporter with the style of a novelist to examine the top stories in finance, politics, and law. The San Francisco Examiner called him “the journalist every journalist would like to be,” and The Daily Beast named him one of the 15 “most important writers on business and economics.”
Stewart is a captivating speaker with powerful insights on ethics and leadership, Wall Street and corporate responsibility. Drawing from the last three decades of the U.S. business, legal, and political scenes, he brings both social and political context to the major events shaping American society.
Stewart’s New York Times column, “Common Sense,” appears weekly in the Business Day section. He provides skillful coverage of corporate America, often exploring the use and abuse of power at the highest levels of business and government. A former Wall Street Journal reporter and front-page editor, Stewart received two Gerald Loeb Awards, the George Polk Award for financial reporting, and a Pulitzer Prize with his deputy editor during his time at the paper.
He is the author of 12 books including his latest work, Deep State: Trump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law, which tells the dramatic saga of the FBI and its simultaneous investigations of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump – the first time in American history the FBI has been thrust into the middle of both parties’ campaigns for the Presidency.
Stewart’s New York Times bestseller, DisneyWar, about Michael Eisner’s reign at the company, won the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book. Heart of a Soldier was named the “Best Book about 9/11” by TIME magazine. His other bestsellers include Blood Sport and Den of Thieves, the definitive account of 1980s Wall Street insider trading scandals, and was listed as one of the “Best books about Wall Street” by Yahoo Finance.
As a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Stewart has written penetrating profiles of Blackstone Group’s Stephen Schwarzman and Jérôme Kerviel, the rogue trader who lost billions of euros for Société Générale. His acclaimed cover story, “Eight Days: The Battle to Save the American Financial System,” captured behind-the-scenes dealings that prompted unprecedented government intervention following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
A Harvard-educated lawyer, Stewart is the Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School. In 2011 the New York Financial Writers Association honored Stewart with the Elliott V. Bell Award for lifetime contributions to the field of financial journalism.
Topics
Truth Matters: How Fake News and False Statements Undermine America
The campaign and election of Donald Trump have brought new attention to a longstanding issue in America: false statements – occurring at the highest levels of business, sports and culture, and now, with the emergence of fake news, the media.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author James B. Stewart sounded the alarm on this issue in his book, Tangled Webs, applying his investigative reporting and story-telling skills to the dramatic cases of Martha Stewart, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Barry Bonds, and perhaps the most notorious liar in financial history, Bernard Madoff.
Now, Donald Trump has taken the issue to new and unthinkable levels. Stewart has met with and interviewed the President-elect, and he knows his tactics firsthand. Stewart’s New York Times column Common Sense was among the first to suggest that Trump paid little or no federal income tax, contrary to Trump’s assertions.
In “Tangled Webs,” Stewart explores the age-old tensions between greed and justice, self-interest and public interest, loyalty and duty. It is a deep look at the problem of falsehood, its consequences, and what can be done about it. It is an urgent reminder that truth matters.
Common Sense: Adventures of a Wall Street Columnist
Ethics and Leadership
An unprecedented series of corporate scandals, many investigated by journalist James B. Stewart, have left Americans deeply troubled by the ethical lapses of top business leaders. What explains these ethical failures? And why does crisis also bring out highly ethical, even self-sacrificing behavior in some people, as exemplified on Sept. 11, 2001?
Corporate Governance & Transparency
Wall St. Today: From Recovery to Reform
An intriguing look at leadership, corporate responsibility, and economic prospects, Mr. Stewart will also discuss the economic changes and trends of 2018, what we can learn from them and how they will shape the year ahead.