Victor Zarnowitz, one of the world’s leading authorities on business cycles, business indicators, and forecast evaluation, died on Feb. 21, 2009, in New York City. He was 89.
Zarnowitz was senior fellow and economic counselor to The Conference Board in New York, where he worked since 1999. He was also Professor Emeritus of Economics and Finance, Graduate School of Business, The University of Chicago, and research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research.
In a recent interview with Directorship, Zarnowitz offered his expertise in deciphering the chaos of today’s economy. His insight in the December/January 2009 issue, Verbatim: A Voice of Reason, stemmed from having lived through multiple recession, learning from each to help guide future economic outcomes.
Zarnowitz was one of the six economists who decide officially that the United States is in a recession.
He worked five days a week at The Conference Board until the day before he died. He was the recipient of many awards and honors and was the author of business Cycles: Theory, History, Indicators and Forecasting. He recently published his memoirs, Fleeing the Nazis, Surviving the Gulag, and Arriving in the Free World.
Zarnowitz was born on Nov. 3, 1919, in the small town of Lancut in southeastern Poland. He fled his hometown of Oswiecim just ahead of the Nazi invasion in September 1939, was imprisoned in a Soviet labor camp, and immigrated to Germany after the war to earn his Ph.D. summa cum laude at the University of Heidelberg. The Zarnowitz family came to the United States in 1952, settled initially in New York and moved to Chicago in 1959.