In the News
Influences
What shapes the minds that make the news
Philadelphia Inquirer, December 21, 2003
Jeremy Nowak is president of the Reinvestment Fund, which finances economic development and housing projects in the region and provides planning and policy analysis to municipalities and state governments. He was the recipient of the 1994 Philadelphia Award.
Quotation to live by: "God respects us when we work, but he loves us when we dance," Nikos Kazantzakis
Books on my nightstand right now: I consume histories and historical novels. The three books I am finishing right now are Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan, The Middle East by Bernard Lewis, and Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. I want to know how we got to where we are today.
Favorite poet: I love Dylan Thomas. I first began reading him 30 years ago when a close friend died. "Do not go gentle into that good night" might be the line I want on my tombstone.
Favorite author (nonfiction): The Italian-Jewish writer Primo Levi. He was a chemist turned novelist who survived Auschwitz. I have read everything he has written, and I am haunted by his life and death. He is the absolute best of the genre of Holocaust writers.
Favorite beach reading: E-mails on my Blackberry. (I get bored by the beach after an hour.)
TV show I'm not afraid to admit I like: The Sopranos. I'm a pushover for bad mob films. When pushed I do a mean interpretation of Brando in On the Waterfront.
Movies I love so much I've watched them more than twice: There are dozens, I love movies. If you wake me up in the middle of the night, I could likely recite large segments of Casablanca and Field of Dreams.
Technology I most often use to write: I carry a laptop and a Blackberry with me all over the world.
If you turned my car radio on right now, it would be tuned to: WIP, because the Eagles are on a roll and I want to listen to every last neurotic commentary on my drive to and from work.
Magazines I read regularly: The Economic Development Quarterly (I have to because I'm on the editorial board); The Economist (closest thing to unbiased world news that I know); and the Sunday New York Times Magazine because I can't break the habit.
Favorite type of music: My range is wide, from John Coltrane to Mozart to Nanci Griffith to B-Tribe. And of course, pre-1970 rock-and-roll.
Recording I play when my soul needs a lift: I transport my soul back to my teenage years and play old Beatles and Crosby, Stills and Nash tapes. It still works.
Person in my field whom I most admire: People who have learned to combine a public purpose with the energy of economic markets. My friend Vijay Mahajan, who created a development bank in South India, comes to mind.
Living person I'd most like to join for dinner and conversation: Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Prize winner in economics. He has one of the great minds around today, and he grounds his work in a wonderful normative worldview. His book Development as Freedom is terrific.
If I had the power to order all of the Philadelphia region to read one book it would be: Flight or Fight, published by the Metropolitan Philadelphia Policy Center.
And here's why: We are a region that is spreading out without growing; we have lost our ability to compete, and this book provides a quick and clear picture of our predicament and what we might do about it.
My wish for Philadelphia: That we would appreciate what we have, but demand more from our future.