Robert J. Samuelson

Who is Robert J. Samuelson?

Robert Jacob Samuelson is a columnist for The Washington Post, where he has written about business and economic issues since 1977, and is syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. He was a columnist for Newsweek magazine from 1984 to 2011. Because he writes on economic issues, he is sometimes confused with Nobel laureate in Economics Paul Samuelson, who also wrote for Newsweek, but he is not related.

He began his career in journalism as a reporter on the business desk of The Washington Post in 1969. He left the paper to become a freelancer in 1973. His work has appeared in The Sunday Times, The New Republic and the Columbia Journalism Review. He joined the National Journal in 1976, where he wrote the "Economic Focus" column. He was a contributing editor there from 1981 to 1984, when he left to write for Newsweek.

Samuelson was born in New York City and raised in nearby White Plains, New York. He received his bachelor's degree in 1967 from Harvard University, where he majored in government. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife. They have one daughter and two sons. He has written three books.