Session 13: The Economics and Policy-Making of Asset Markets
In recent years the influence of asset prices on monetary policy and consumer spending have taken on new urgency given the run up of equity prices in the late 1990s and housing prices in the 2004-2006 period. This session offers three views on the interplay of asset prices and economic and policy decision-making.
Presentations
Links of Interest
Speakers
Beth Ann Bovino
Senior Economist
Standard & Poor’s
Beth Ann Bovino is a senior economist at Standard & Poor’s, based in New York. In this position, she works with David Wyss, the chief economist, on S&P’s economic forecasts and publications, and co-authors the weekly Financial Notes and Weekly Economics Call. Beth Ann has created Industry Drivers reports for analyst research. She is quoted regularly in the press and has appeared on many major television programs. Further, she has written many articles for popular and professional publications.
Prior to joining Standard and Poor’s in February 2004, Beth Ann spent over ten years doing economic and market research with Sungard Institutional Brokerage, UBS Warburg, and the Federal Reserve.
Beth Ann holds a PhD in Economics from Columbia University, a Master's in International and Development Economics from Yale University, and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
Jason Benderly
Benderly Economics
James Bianco
Bianco Research LLC
Since November 1990, he has been producing fixed income commentaries with a circulation of hundreds of portfolio managers and traders. Jim’s commentaries are primarily devoted to the fixed income markets with special emphasis on: money flow characteristics of primary dealers, mutual funds, hedge funds, futures traders, banks, and institutional investors. Other topics he has researched include: the effects of commodity prices on bond yields, how the ratio of the equity market’s capitalization as a percentage of nominal gross domestic product affects price performance of the stock market, the role government regulation plays in determining inflation, how market performance affects mutual fund investors, the role politics plays in setting interest rates, and measuring the stock and bond markets from a total-return perspective.
Jim produces unique and original insights into movements in the financial markets and has been a featured speaker at many investment conferences. He is regularly featured in the following investment publications: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barrons, US News And World Report, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, The National Review, Euromoney, and Grant's Interest Rate Observer in addition to the Dow Jones, Reuters, Knight-Ridder and Associated Press newswires. He has also written for Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities, Financial Trader and Futures Magazine and has appeared numerous times on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg and Fox News.
Prior to joining Arbor and Bianco Research, Jim spent five years in New York City with several prominent investment banking firms. He was a Market Strategist in equity and fixed income research at UBS Securities and Equity Technical Analyst at First Boston and Shearson Lehman Brothers. He is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a member of the Market Technicians Association (MTA), where he served as a national Vice-President and Chairman of the MTA’s 1996 annual seminar.
Mr. Bianco is married with three children and resides in Chicago. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Marquette University (1984) and an MBA from Fordham University (1989).
Wesley Phoa
Capital Guardian Trust
Wesley Phoa is a vice president of Capital Strategy Research, Inc. and manages U.S. Fixed Income portfolios. He is also an investment analyst covering U.S. Government bonds, as well as having responsibilities for Fixed-Income quantitative research.
Prior to joining Capital Strategy Research in 1999, he was with Capital Management Sciences in Los Angeles for three years, where he served as vice president and later as director of research. Before that he spent three years with Deutsche Bank in Australia as a quantitative analyst and three years as a mathematics lecturer and research fellow.
Dr. Phoa received a PhD in pure mathematics from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He also holds a BSc (Honors) from the Australian National University and is based in West Los Angeles.
