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Marilyn Geewax

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Marilyn Geewax is a senior editor, assigning and editing business radio stories. She also serves as the national economics correspondent for the NPR web site, and regularly discusses economic issues on Tell Me More and Talk of the Nation.

Her work contributed to NPR's 2011 Edward R. Murrow Award for hard news for "The Foreclosure Nightmare." Geewax also worked on the foreclosure-crisis coverage that was recognized with a 2009 Heywood Broun Award.

Before to joining NPR in 2008, Geewax served as the national economics correspondent for Cox Newspapers' Washington Bureau. Before that, she worked at Cox's flagship paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, first as a business reporter and then as a columnist and editorial board member. She got her start as a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal.

Over the years, she has filed business news stories from China, Japan, South Africa and Europe.

Geewax was a 1994-95 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, where she studied economics and international relations. She earned a master's degree at Georgetown University, focusing on international economic affairs, and has a bachelor's degree in journalism from The Ohio State University.

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Business
1:57 am
Tue May 1, 2012

Discovering The True Cost Of At-Home Caregiving

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Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Maryland resident Ida Christian, 89, began showing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in 2009. Her condition demands around-the-clock care.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Ida's husband of 42 years, Frank Christian Jr., passed away in 1990. "He was a man of few words, with no enemies, and she was a woman of a thousand words, with no enemies," says her son, Frank Christian III. "She lost her good buddy."
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Geneva Hunter (left) and her daughter, Yolanda, decided to take a hands-on approach to Ida's care. Ida lives with Geneva, and Yolanda quit her job to become Ida's daytime caregiver.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Yolanda, 43, helps Ida color at the family's kitchen table. She has been taking care of her grandmother daily for over two years and insists it is the best care for Ida.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Yolanda waits as Ida gingerly walks into the bathroom during their morning routine. According to Yolanda, some days Ida argues with her and refuses to get out of bed.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Yolanda remembers crying the first time she bathed Ida and saw how frail she had become.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Yolanda treats her caregiving responsibilities like a full-time job, keeping a daily record of what Ida eats, her activities, moods and doctors' appointments.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
"I've been watching her deteriorate since 2009. ... Back then we could still play chess and talk," Yolanda says. "It's the regression that is the hardest part."
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Yolanda zips up Ida's coat after taking her out to breakfast on her 89th birthday.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Although daily caregiving has been difficult on Yolanda, she and her mother agree that moving Ida into an assisted living facility will never be an option.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Yolanda speaks to a specialist during one of the many routine doctors' appointments.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Yolanda takes a business call in the parking lot outside Geneva's home. She had only planned to take a year off from her lucrative career in human resources, and is now trying to get back into the workforce.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Ida Christian, 89, was diagnosed with dementia in 2008. Her condition demands around-the-clock care.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Ida Christian gets help from her granddaughter, Yolanda Hunter (left), in blowing out the candles on the cake celebrating her 89th birthday.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:51 am

Walk through any nursing home, and your first thought might be: "I need to take care of Mom myself."

Few people want to turn over a loved one to institutional care. No matter how good the nursing home, it may seem cold and impersonal — and very expensive. But making the choice to provide care yourself is fraught with financial risks and personal sacrifices.

Those who become full-time caregivers often look back and wish they had taken the time to better understand the financial position they would be getting themselves into.

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Family Matters: The Money Squeeze
2:29 am
Tue April 24, 2012

Preparing For A Future That Includes Aging Parents

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Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha Shamone-Gilmore (right) attends church with her husband, Curtis Gilmore (center), and her father, Franklin Brunson, 81. Shamone-Gilmore moved Brunson into her Capitol Heights, Md., home after he developed dementia.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
"Dad, wake up. Do you know what day it is?" Natasha says to her father during her daily morning routine. The family had a friend install a makeshift wall in their living room to create a bedroom for Franklin.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
"In the morning my head is spinning, because I'm thinking of all the things that have to be done," Natasha says. Not only does she care for her father, but her 24-year-old son, Nicholas, also lives in the family home.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha applies makeup to "get the tired out of my face." She credits her faith with allowing her to manage the stress of being a caregiver.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Franklin, who was a Safeway employee for over 40 years, spends his weekdays at the Crescent Ridge Adult Day Health Center. Franklin's dementia and partial blindness mean Natasha can't leave him alone.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha keeps inspirational notes and messages throughout her home to help her focus her thoughts.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Franklin sits patiently waiting for his tai chi class to begin at Crescent Ridge. Several dozen residents who live with dementia, Alzheimer's or other brain injuries spend their day at the center.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Franklin (center) makes a punching movement in a self-defense exercise during his Tai Chi class.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha hugs Nicholas at the office where she works as an industrial trainer. Nicholas stopped by to get some money for gas and to fix his car.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Nicholas (left) laughs with his childhood friend Corey Buford while they work on Nicholas' car. Nicholas has briefly abandoned his music aspirations and is close to getting a job with Comcast to install cable. "The money is more important," Nicholas says. "I need something that I can contribute [to the household] with."
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Franklin wipes pollen from the family car in their driveway before heading to church on a Sunday morning. He talks often about missing his independence, especially his ability to drive.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha and Curtis pray during Sunday worship at The Sanctuary Baptist church in Capitol Heights, Md. "She is always trying to take care of someone or something — a dog, a cat, a bird," Franklin says of Natasha. "She has been that way since she was knee-high."
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Franklin prays during Sunday worship. "I got aches and pains but I can still walk around," he says.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha Shamone-Gilmore (right) at church with her husband, Curtis Gilmore (center), and her father, Franklin Brunson, 81. Shamone-Gilmore moved her father into her Capitol Heights, Md., home after he developed dementia.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha Shamone-Gilmore keeps a letter from her father's doctor diagnosing him with dementia on a wall in her kitchen. She uses it at times to remind Franklin Brunson of his condition.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:52 am

Planning a wedding is exciting.

Mapping out a vacation is fun.

Figuring how to afford care for your confused, elderly father? That one may never cross your mind — at least, not until you need more money to care for him.

"Never thought about it," Natasha Shamone-Gilmore, 58, says about her younger self. "Never ever."

She thinks about it a lot these days. Shamone-Gilmore, a computer trainer in Maryland, now shares a modest home with her husband, 24-year-old son and 81-year-old father.

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The Two-Way
11:36 am
Tue April 17, 2012

Former 'Car Czar' Rattner Gives Dodd-Frank A Qualified Endorsement

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Steven Rattner — the "car czar" when the Obama administration was restructuring the auto industry in 2009 — today spoke in favor of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

But it wasn't exactly a double thumbs up.

On a panel at an ideas conference in New York City, Rattner noted that before the financial crisis began in 2008, Wall Street was the "global leader in finance. ... But of course, it got out of control."

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Family Matters: The Money Squeeze
11:02 pm
Mon April 16, 2012

One Roof, Three Generations, Many Decisions

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Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Ida Christian, who suffers from dementia, gets help from her granddaughter, Yolanda Hunter (left), in blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Yolanda quit her lucrative job to become Ida's full-time caregiver.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
AnnaBelle talks to her granddaughter Carley (right) and Carley's friends after they returned from lacrosse practice. "I'm not rich money-wise, but with my family I'm a millionaire," AnnaBelle says.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha Shamone-Gilmore walks to church with her husband, Curtis (left), and her father, Franklin Brunson, 81, in Capitol Heights, Md. She has taken on the daily challenge of caring for her father, who is suffering from mild dementia. Her son Nicholas, 24, also lives in the family home.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha Shamone-Gilmore has opted to place her father in a full-time adult health center during the day while she works for a nonprofit and her husband works for a regional transit system.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Geneva Hunter (left), who runs the secretarial operations for a Washington, D.C., law firm, decided to take a hands-on approach to her mother's care and moved Ida Christian, 89, into her home.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Ida Christian, who suffers from dementia, gets help from her granddaughter, Yolanda Hunter (left), in blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Yolanda quit her lucrative job to become Ida's full-time caregiver.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Kelley Hawkins (left) smiles with her grandmother AnnaBelle Bowers, 87, while at lunch in Harrisburg, Pa. Kelley shares full-time care of AnnaBelle with her sister-in-law LaDonna Martin. Both are nurses with two children each, and move Annabelle, who has limited mobility, every two weeks from one home to another.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:52 am

Part of the Family Matters series

The Great Recession slammed into all age groups, flattening the career dreams of young people and squeezing the retirement accounts of middle-aged savers. It financially crippled many elderly people who had thought they could stand on their own.

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The Two-Way
5:22 pm
Thu March 22, 2012

Or Maybe They're Just Throwing Darts

Credit AP
Lana Turner, center, is an interested listener as actress Ava Gardner leans over her to chat with Fernando Lamas, who is famous for saying, "It's better to look good, than feel good."
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Why do economists keep getting it wrong?

For months, the job market's strength has been exceeding economists' predictions. It happened again today: the Labor Department's weekly report on first-time jobless claims came in at just 348,000 — the lowest level in four years.

Most economists had predicted about 355,000 people had applied for unemployment benefits in the week ended March 17. So why do they keep missing the mark?

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