After a stint as foreign correspondent in London and as bureau chief in Bonn, Mr. Malabre moved home to New York in 1961 to specialize in economic coverage, as one of the writers of the Journal's "Monday Outlook" column for 30 years.
In his columns and especially in his seven popular books, Mr. Malabre used the longevity of his position and breadth of his reporting mandate to formulate a "big picture" of the economy and where it stood, then tried to present an explanation meaningful to the intelligent reader.
Beginning with "Understanding the Economy: For People Who Can't Stand Economics" in 1976, he helped feed the increasing demand for more accessible economic information during those tumultuous years.
In 1987, "Beyond Our Means" sounded the alarm over runaway deficit spending, and helped reset the political agenda toward balanced budgets for years to come.
As something of a career wrapup, in 1994, Mr. Malabre brought out "Lost Prophets: An Insider's History of Modern Economists," in which he profiled major figures of the post-war era, from John Maynard Keynes to Alan Greenspan, put them into realistic scenarios--some imagined and some recalled first-hand--and summarized the economic trends and philosophies of the times, with revealing analysis.
Mr. Malabre retired from the Journal in 1994.