Jeff Speakes, Ph.D.
Jeff Speakes is Director of Financial Markets at California Lutheran University’s Center for Economic Research and Forecasting. Jeff is also president of Kern Economics, a firm specializing in economics consulting and market risk advisory services. He was formerly Senior Managing Director and Chief Economist at Countrywide Financial Corporation where he oversaw interest rate hedging, economic forecasting, and quantitative model development and validation. He was responsible for the design, development and ongoing management of Countrywide’s leading-edge servicing hedge operation.
Read BioCERF Blog: Posts by Jeff Speakes
In a recent speech Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke1 spoke of the importance of financial education. People commonly make financial mistakes such as saving too little, taking on too much debt, holding too little life insurance, making bad investment decisions and, in general, paying fees that are unnecessary. The consequences of these mistakes can be… Read more
The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) shows that median net worth for baby boomers (households with head of household aged 55-64 in 2010) was $179,000 in 2010, down from $226,000 in 2007. The median is defined to be the lowest of the top 50% (or the greatest of the bottom 50%). At first glance, it… Read more
Former Bain partner Edward Conard has published a controversial book “Unintended Consequences”1 in which he provides a positive case for income and wealth inequality and for market solutions to societal problems. His story is an unabashed defense of market capitalism (and private equity). A NYT reviewer has labeled the book “The Most Hated Book in… Read more
The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is an index (actually, there are 150 indexes covering 10 currencies and 15 maturities from 1 day to 1 year) that is reported daily by the British Bankers Association (BBA). LIBOR settings are established each day as the result of a survey of a panel of large international banks. … Read more
A common refrain about economic policy and performance in the United States over the past thirty years is that inequality is rising and the middle class is disappearing. The implication of the latter claim is that people are falling out of the middle class into the lower income class. Of course, if you define “middle… Read more
Joe Mihalic is a recent graduate from the Harvard Business School (HBS) who managed to pay off $91,000 in student debt in seven months. He is currently enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame because he documented the details of his journey in a blog. His story is one of determination and commitment to a goal. … Read more
The Federal Reserve puts out two publications that address the level, change and composition of household net worth. The most widely known is the Household Balance Sheet table in the quarterly Flow of Funds (FOF) report. This report is released about two months after the end of a quarter. The FOF for the first quarter… Read more
The Obama Administration has seized upon a recent article in MarketWatch by Rex Nutting (here) that purports to show that federal spending growth under President Obama is the lowest of any Administration since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Press Secretary Carney and the President have glommed onto this story with abandon, arguing that the President is, by… Read more
A major event in the financial markets last month was the initial public offering of FaceBook (ticker symbol FB). Despite the subsequent decline in price, the financial press reported that this IPO “instantly” created many new millionaires and billionaires. By doing so, the IPO has worsened economic inequality in the U.S. This is because inequality… Read more
President Obama tells us that the highest return investment you can make is in your own (or your children’s) education. The aggregate statistics appear to bear this out with college graduates earning about 50% more than high school graduates. Even after taking into the direct cost of four years of higher education along with the… Read more
