Author Bio
Ev Ehrlich was born in a log cabin in a fifth-floor apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens: the inaccurate paper records of the day put it at 1950. After attending prestigious Newtown High School and graduating with a degree in advanced subway map reading, he enlisted in the student revolution at S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, where he quickly rose to the position of provocateur before being discharged with a B.A. in 1971.
Ehrlich has spent much of his career under the misimpression that he is an economist, a delusion promulgated by the Ph.D. he earned in that subject at the University of Michigan. As such, he has cut a broad swath through the heady upper reaches of that profession as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs (where his appointment symbolized President Clinton's commitment to diversity on the basis of attitude), Chief Economist, asset peddler, and strategic planner of Unisys Corporation, and Assistant Director of the Congressional Budget office. He is now President of ESC Company, a Washington-based economics consulting firm serving Fortune 500 companies, leading trade associations, and such diverse organizations as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Ehrlich wrote his first novel, Big Government, in a series of furtive moments and late night somnambulisms over the past 15 years, intent on capturing the culture and values of politics before they captured him. He has also written radio plays, been an aspiring comic book artist, and was cofounder of Red Shadow: The Economics Rock & Roll Band, an all-economist, political band that sounded as bad then as the idea does now.
When not writing his second novel -- a historical satire set in 19th Century America to be published by Warner Books just before the end of the 20th -- Ehrlich leads the life of quiet, suburban desperation that every lad in Jackson Heights longed for. A gratefully married father of three, he lives in Bethesda, Maryland, where he spends his time swimming, taking father-daughter pottery classes, scoring for the wrestling club, coaching little league, and wondering if a man his age should replace his 15-year-old station wagon with a convertible.