Liz MacDonald
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth MacDonald is a business journalist who appears on Fox Business and Fox News, and has been a guest commentator on other t.v. shows. MacDonald also covered the markets, corporate accounting scandals and the IRS for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine. MacDonald is now the stocks editor for the Fox Business Network
, and has been a commentator on television and radio both in the United States and abroad, and according to her Fox bio has received more than a dozen journalism awards, including the Gerald Loeb award for excellence and the Society of Professional Journalists excellence in journalism award. MacDonald has covered business since 1988.
MacDonald is also a regular on the Fox News show Forbes on Fox
, having been with the show since its inception in 2001. She appears daily and guest anchors Fox Business's TV shows throughout the trading day. Her column, EMac's Stock Watch, can be found on both the Fox Business and Fox News websites.
MacDonald has also appeared as a guest on CNBC
's Kudlow & Company
with Larry Kudlow, NBC
's The Today Show, ABC
's World News Tonight, ABC
's Nightline, Your World with Neil Cavuto
, The O'Reilly Factor
, CBS
This Morning
, C-SPAN
, Court TV
, as well as radio
shows such as ABC News talk radio and NPR.
MacDonald's primary beat is stock market corruption, corporate accounting abuses, the IRS and taxes. Members of the U.S. Congress have noted that an award-winning investigative series about the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) that MacDonald reported helped lead to broader taxpayer rights and reforms at the agency. It also led to Congress calling MacDonald in to testify about IRS abuses of taxpayers as well as IRS reforms.
MacDonald's scoops range from stories about the government's historic bailout of Wall Street, including the collapse of Bear Stearns
, Lehman Bros., AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Citigroup and Bank of America, executive bonus scandals and the abuse of taxpayer funds in Washington. MacDonald has also covered behind-the-scenes bailout controversies at the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve.
MacDonald's IRS coverage included news on the Kennedys' secret IRS audits of its political enemies—including Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's group—to Scientology's secret deal with the IRS to become a world religion, to Congressional abuses of the IRS, and President George H.W. Bush's secret fight with the agency.
MacDonald also was one of the first journalists in the country to sound the alarm about the coming wave of corporate accounting scandals in the mid to late '90s while at the Wall Street Journal. And MacDonald created Forbes Magazine's top-rated annual feature, "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women," widely read around the world, in 2004.
, Ben Stein
, Robert Reich
, Art Laffer, Stephen Moore, Steve Forbes
, energy expert Daniel Yergin, president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, and Adam Posen, co-author with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
and Frederic Mishkin of a book about inflation-targeting.
"If a meteorite hit the planet, there would be three things left standing: Cockroaches, Cher, and Goldman Sachs."
"How to stop Congress's drunken fire brigade of deficit spending? Pay elected officials in Treasury bills. Make them eat their own cooking."
"Wall Street has gone berserk, the free market has turned into a free-for-all. And Washington's chaotic response to the bailouts is caroming around worse than the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team."
"I once asked a top Bear Stearns executive what was on his mind, as I allowed that overstatement, knowing that this was the firm that would securitize the effluent from a fire hydrant."
"Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan did little to rein in berserk bankers, as he defended himself to a mystified Congress in testimony that brought obscurantism to an art form, leaving some to wonder whether the central banker needs a GPS system on his logic."
"The markets remain in blackout mode for subprime bonds, as companies can't do mark to market accounting for them because there is no market to mark them to. This sounds like a bad Abbott and Costello movie."
"Another quarter horribilis is upon us. Fasten your wallets, this quarter's earnings are going to be a bumpy ride."
MacDonald also delivered for The Wall Street Journal
the story, based on Freedom of Information Act filings, about the Kennedy Administration
's secret IRS program to audit its political enemies, a program that eventually resulted in the IRS audits of 10,000 right-wing groups under the auspices of tax-exempt code violations.
MacDonald’s story reported that the IRS under the Kennedy administration audited Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
's group, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee
. And MacDonald's story reported that the Kennedys' IRS dragnet targeted for audits non-partisan groups, such as B'Nai Brith, the Daughters of Zion and the Daughters of the American Revolution
, in a bid to not appear politically biased, according to the article's quotes from Kennedy's IRS commissioner Mortimer Caplin
.
MacDonald also delivered the scoop for The Wall Street Journal
on the secret details of the historic settlement between the Church of Scientology
and the IRS that finally established the group as a world religion and gave Scientology nonprofit status, after a fight lasting nearly three decades.
Prior to The Wall Street Journal, MacDonald was the financial editor for Worth
and covered the IRS and taxes for Money
.
At Money, MacDonald reported an award-winning investigative series on widespread abuses of taxpayers by the IRS, which members of the U.S. Congress have subsequently noted helped lead to improved taxpayer rights and reforms at the agency.
MacDonald also delivered the scoop on the secret fight between President George H. W. Bush
and the IRS over his state residency status (Bush said Maine, the IRS, Washington, D.C.). After the IRS ruled his residency was D.C., the former president rented a room at The Houstonian, a Houston, Texas hotel, calling it his primary residence--a move that also helped garner Texas's electoral college votes.
MacDonald's story reported that the move let the president avoid Maine
and District of Columbia taxes. MacDonald's story also provided grist for Bill Clinton
's 1992 presidential campaign stump speeches and for editorials and political cartoons nationwide, including Doonesbury
.
And MacDonald broke the news on Congress’s own personal IRS office on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress got the IRS's personal help in preparing their individual tax returns under the convoluted tax laws they write.
Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network is an American cable news and satellite news television channel that began broadcasting on October 15, 2007. It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...
, and has been a commentator on television and radio both in the United States and abroad, and according to her Fox bio has received more than a dozen journalism awards, including the Gerald Loeb award for excellence and the Society of Professional Journalists excellence in journalism award. MacDonald has covered business since 1988.
MacDonald is also a regular on the Fox News show Forbes on Fox
Forbes on Fox
Forbes on Fox is an American business analysis program, the third show of the Cost of Freedom business block, on Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. ET on the Fox News Channel...
, having been with the show since its inception in 2001. She appears daily and guest anchors Fox Business's TV shows throughout the trading day. Her column, EMac's Stock Watch, can be found on both the Fox Business and Fox News websites.
MacDonald has also appeared as a guest on CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
's Kudlow & Company
Kudlow & Company
The Kudlow Report is a news television program about business and politics hosted by Lawrence Kudlow, that airs on the CNBC television channel at 7pm ET. The show began airing on January 26, 2009. It is a successor to Kudlow & Company, which aired from 2005 until October 2008...
with Larry Kudlow, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's The Today Show, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's World News Tonight, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Nightline, Your World with Neil Cavuto
Your World with Neil Cavuto
Your World with Neil Cavuto , which debuted as the Cavuto Business Report on the network's launch in 1996, is an American business television program appearing on Fox News Channel.-About the program:...
, The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor
The O'Reilly Factor, originally titled The O'Reilly Report from 1996 to 1998 and often called The Factor, is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who often discusses current controversial political issues with guests.The program was the most watched...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
This Morning
The Early Show
The Early Show is an American television morning news talk show broadcast by CBS from New York City. The program airs live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday; most affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones air the show on tape-delay from 7 to 9 a.m. local time. ...
, C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
, Court TV
Court TV
truTV is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Time Warner. The network launched as Court TV in 1991, changing to truTV in 2008...
, as well as radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
shows such as ABC News talk radio and NPR.
MacDonald's primary beat is stock market corruption, corporate accounting abuses, the IRS and taxes. Members of the U.S. Congress have noted that an award-winning investigative series about the Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
(IRS) that MacDonald reported helped lead to broader taxpayer rights and reforms at the agency. It also led to Congress calling MacDonald in to testify about IRS abuses of taxpayers as well as IRS reforms.
MacDonald's scoops range from stories about the government's historic bailout of Wall Street, including the collapse of Bear Stearns
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...
, Lehman Bros., AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Citigroup and Bank of America, executive bonus scandals and the abuse of taxpayer funds in Washington. MacDonald has also covered behind-the-scenes bailout controversies at the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve.
MacDonald's IRS coverage included news on the Kennedys' secret IRS audits of its political enemies—including Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's group—to Scientology's secret deal with the IRS to become a world religion, to Congressional abuses of the IRS, and President George H.W. Bush's secret fight with the agency.
MacDonald also was one of the first journalists in the country to sound the alarm about the coming wave of corporate accounting scandals in the mid to late '90s while at the Wall Street Journal. And MacDonald created Forbes Magazine's top-rated annual feature, "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women," widely read around the world, in 2004.
Television
MacDonald has appeared on television with former presidential candidates, Congressmen and Senators, as well as notables such as Pat BuchananPat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought...
, Ben Stein
Ben Stein
Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein is an American actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford...
, Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997....
, Art Laffer, Stephen Moore, Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...
, energy expert Daniel Yergin, president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, and Adam Posen, co-author with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist, and the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. During his tenure as Chairman, Bernanke has overseen the response of the Federal Reserve to late-2000s financial crisis....
and Frederic Mishkin of a book about inflation-targeting.
Columns
Here are some excerpts from MacDonald's columns at EMac's Stock Watch on FoxBusiness.com:"If a meteorite hit the planet, there would be three things left standing: Cockroaches, Cher, and Goldman Sachs."
"How to stop Congress's drunken fire brigade of deficit spending? Pay elected officials in Treasury bills. Make them eat their own cooking."
"Wall Street has gone berserk, the free market has turned into a free-for-all. And Washington's chaotic response to the bailouts is caroming around worse than the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team."
"I once asked a top Bear Stearns executive what was on his mind, as I allowed that overstatement, knowing that this was the firm that would securitize the effluent from a fire hydrant."
"Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan did little to rein in berserk bankers, as he defended himself to a mystified Congress in testimony that brought obscurantism to an art form, leaving some to wonder whether the central banker needs a GPS system on his logic."
"The markets remain in blackout mode for subprime bonds, as companies can't do mark to market accounting for them because there is no market to mark them to. This sounds like a bad Abbott and Costello movie."
"Another quarter horribilis is upon us. Fasten your wallets, this quarter's earnings are going to be a bumpy ride."
Print journalism
While at the Wall Street Journal, MacDonald delivered front-page stories, Heard on the Street columns, Economic Outlook columns, and broke news in the late '90s about the first wave of corporate accounting abuses, as well as scoops on corruption in the accounting industry.MacDonald also delivered for The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
the story, based on Freedom of Information Act filings, about the Kennedy Administration
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
's secret IRS program to audit its political enemies, a program that eventually resulted in the IRS audits of 10,000 right-wing groups under the auspices of tax-exempt code violations.
MacDonald’s story reported that the IRS under the Kennedy administration audited Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
's group, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee
Fair Play for Cuba Committee
The Fair Play for Cuba Committee was an activist group set up in New York in April 1960. The FPCC's purpose was to provide grassroots support for the Cuban Revolution against attacks by the United States government, once Fidel Castro began openly admitting his commitment to Marxism and began the...
. And MacDonald's story reported that the Kennedys' IRS dragnet targeted for audits non-partisan groups, such as B'Nai Brith, the Daughters of Zion and the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....
, in a bid to not appear politically biased, according to the article's quotes from Kennedy's IRS commissioner Mortimer Caplin
Mortimer Caplin
Mortimer Maxwell Caplin is an American lawyer and educator and the founding member of Caplin & Drysdale . Born in New York City, he holds B.S...
.
MacDonald also delivered the scoop for The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
on the secret details of the historic settlement between the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
and the IRS that finally established the group as a world religion and gave Scientology nonprofit status, after a fight lasting nearly three decades.
Prior to The Wall Street Journal, MacDonald was the financial editor for Worth
Worth (magazine)
Worth is an American wealth management magazine for high net worth individuals. It is published on a bi-monthly basis and circulated to over 110,000 recipients.-History:Worth was founded in 1992 as a wealth management magazine for high net worth individuals...
and covered the IRS and taxes for Money
Money (magazine)
Money is published by Time Inc. Its first issue was published in October 1972. Its articles cover the gamut of personal finance topics ranging from investing, saving, retirement and taxes to family finance issues like paying for college, credit, career and home improvement...
.
At Money, MacDonald reported an award-winning investigative series on widespread abuses of taxpayers by the IRS, which members of the U.S. Congress have subsequently noted helped lead to improved taxpayer rights and reforms at the agency.
MacDonald also delivered the scoop on the secret fight between President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and the IRS over his state residency status (Bush said Maine, the IRS, Washington, D.C.). After the IRS ruled his residency was D.C., the former president rented a room at The Houstonian, a Houston, Texas hotel, calling it his primary residence--a move that also helped garner Texas's electoral college votes.
MacDonald's story reported that the move let the president avoid Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and District of Columbia taxes. MacDonald's story also provided grist for Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's 1992 presidential campaign stump speeches and for editorials and political cartoons nationwide, including Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
.
And MacDonald broke the news on Congress’s own personal IRS office on Capitol Hill, where members of Congress got the IRS's personal help in preparing their individual tax returns under the convoluted tax laws they write.