(January 6, 2014) — George “Jerry” Goodman, best known by his pseudonym Adam Smith as anchor of the 1980s PBS series “Money World,” died on January 4. He was 83.
Goodman had established himself as a business journalist for the people, using cartoons and field reports to explain finance and economics in his 30-minute documentary series. The Emmy-winning show ran for 13 years, making complex financial concepts accessible to millions of viewers.
“I have always believed that if you dramatize a story, you can make it comprehensible while at the same time maintaining a relatively high level of sophistication,” Goodman said according to The Boston Globe.
After the 2008 financial crisis, Goodman emphasized the need for a greater consideration for banking regulations and a sense of integrity within the financial community.
“If you look at where the damage was done in 2008, and who survived well, the financial community—those who survived—are in wonderful shape,” Goodman told aiCIO in a 2010 video interview. “Bank presidents whose banks were bailed out are paying themselves $20 million. The rest of the Americans are just trying to get some traction. I think the most important thing is to create an atmosphere of morality and participation so that it isn’t me and mine.”
The broadcast commentator also helped found Institutional Investor magazine in the 1960s and published various non-fiction books about economics and finance including The Money Game (1968), Supermoney (1972), and Paper Money (1981).
“He changed the way we think about financial journalism,” said Peter Landau, Goodman’s successor at Institutional Investor, in a profile on TJFR Group/MasterCard’s Business News Luminaries website. “Instead of being told that the Dow Jones Industrials declined two points or something equally boring, all of a sudden we were awakened to the fact that exciting things happen on Wall Street.”
The Money Game firmly put Goodman—or Adam Smith—on the map, stating that money, not economics, would be comprehensible to the average reader. Leaving out the economic jargon, the book was an instant bestseller—even wildly popular on Wall Street.
“Everyone’s interested in money,” Goodman told United Press International in 1985 according to The New York Times. “Money, food, and sex, not necessarily in that order.”
Supermoney expanded on the topic, exploring the development of wealth, the markets of the early 1970s, and the introduction of business tycoon, Warren Buffett.
Goodman found a kindred spirit in Buffett: “I did go meet Buffett—and we had a wonderful time. We met for dinner, and liked each other enough to meet for breakfast the next day. He’s a great storyteller, a real teacher, even back then, and, please pardon my language, we were like two drunks trying to top each other with grander stories. He was better.”
“What makes Buffett Buffett is that he is a great teacher. He toils over his letters to investors—and he loves it,” Goodman recalled to aiCIO in 2010. “Even 40 years ago, he was a master of metaphor, baseball in particular, and loved explaining complicated issues in a simple way.”
The St. Louis native graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, was a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, and worked at Esquire, Fortune, and New York magazine.
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