Binyamin Appelbaum is the lead writer on business and economics for the Editorial Board of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. He joined the board in March 2019. He was previously a Washington correspondent for the ''Times'', covering the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

and other aspects of economic policy. Appelbaum has previously worked for ''

The Florida Times-Union ''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...

'', ''

The Charlotte Observer ''The Charlotte Observer'' is an American English-language newspaper serving Charlotte, North Carolina, and its metro area. The Observer was founded in 1886. As of 2020, it has the second-largest circulation of any newspaper in the Carolinas. I ...

'', ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' and ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

''. He graduated in 2001 from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

with a B.A. in history. He was executive editor of the student newspaper, ''

The Daily Pennsylvanian ''The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc.'' is the independent student media organization of the University of Pennsylvania. The DP, Inc. publishes The Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper, 34th Street Magazine, and Under the Button, as well as five newslette ...

''.

''The Economists' Hour''

His first book, '' The Economists' Hour'', was published in September 2019. The book "traces the rise of the economists, first in the United States and then around the globe, as their ideas reshaped the modern world, curbing government, unleashing corporations and hastening globalization."

Career

In 2007 Appelbaum was part of a team of reporters at ''The Charlotte Observer'' that helped shed light on the area's high rate of housing

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mort ...

s and questionable sales practices by

Beazer Homes USA Beazer Homes USA, Inc. is a home construction company based in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2016, the company was the 11th largest home builder in the United States based on the number of homes closed. The company operates in 13 states. As of December ...

, one of the United States' largest homebuilders. A profile of his reporting on the

subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline in US home prices after the col ...

described how, well before the nation knew about the coming crisis in mortgage lending, Appelbaum "noticed a strange pattern while compiling a list of foreclosed homes in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County—clusters were concentrated in new developments. Appelbaum wondered if faulty loans were behind the trend". series led to FBI, IRS, SEC, and HUD investigations of Beazer Homes, which has since stopped making mortgage loans nationwide and stopped building homes in

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, North Carolina. "Beazer's crime wave might have gone on longer than it did, but for a North Carolina newspaper, The Charlotte Observer," wrote Floyd Norris of ''The New York Times''. The series won a

Gerald Loeb Award The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...

for Medium Newspapers, a

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

and was a finalist for the 2008

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

in public service. Appelbaum's November 8, 2018 tweet claiming the term '

gaslighting Gaslighting is a colloquialism, loosely defined as manipulating someone so as to make them question their own reality. The term derives from the title of the 1944 American film '' Gaslight'', which was based on the 1938 British theatre play '' G ...

' was not an "actual English word" sent lookups for the word up 14,000% on Merriam-Webster.com, putting it on their list of trending terms. He has two siblings:

Yoni Appelbaum Yoni Appelbaum, an American historian and journalist, is Senior Editor for politics at '' The Atlantic''. Appelbaum was previously a columnist for the publication. Early life and education Appelbaum is the son of Diana Muir Karter and Dr. Paul ...

and Avigail Appelbaum.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Appelbaum, Binyamin The Daily Pennsylvanian people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Gerald Loeb Award winners for Small and Medium Newspapers American male journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male writers The New York Times columnists The New York Times editorial board