Michael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who has covered business, technology, and public policy for theLos Angeles Timesfor twenty years. In that time he has served as a financial and political writer, an investigative reporter, and as a foreign correspondent in Africa and Russia. He currently serves as theTimesbusiness columnist. His other books includeThe Plot Against Social Security(2005),Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age(1999), andA Death in Kenya(1995). Mr. Hiltzik received the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for articles exposing corruption in the entertainment industry. Among his other awards for excellence in reporting are the 2004 Gerald Loeb Award for outstanding business commentary and the Silver Gavel from the American Bar Association for outstanding legal reporting. A graduate of Colgate University, Mr.

Hiltzik received a master of science degree in journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in 1974. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two children.