WaPo hires reporter to cover “personal economics”

The following was issued by Washington Post financial editor Greg Schneider and deputy financial editor David Cho: 

We’re thrilled to announce that Chico Harlan is joining the Financial section to cover a beat we’re calling personal economics.

In his four years as East Asia bureau chief for the Foreign staff, and before that as a baseball writer for Sports, Chico established himself as one of the finest writers at The Post — or anywhere else. Based first in Tokyo and then in Seoul, he mastered his terrain with uncanny speed. As Doug Jehl notes: Chico revealed himself as a gifted storyteller with a remarkable eye for detail. It’s impossible to forget his portrait of the eerie wasteland left behind by those who fled the Fukushima disaster,  leaving  “half-finished wine bottles on the tables and sneakers in the foyer.’’ This week, he opened our eyes to a mail-order courtship between a South Korean man and his Vietnamese bride,  when  “the attraction was modest but enough.’’

When he joins Financial, Chico will take a zoomed-in focus on the way bigger economic trends affect individuals, from small-business owners to retirees to recent college graduates. He’ll cover the ways Americans think about their money — the way they spend it, earn it, lose it, fall in love with it, let it ruin them. This is a beat about gas prices, part-time jobs, $40,000 SUVs, mortgages, debts. And he will write about global trade and economic issues in ways that speak directly to consumers.

We can’t wait for him to get started; please join us in welcoming Chico back to the States early next month.