Session 17: International Panel
The speakers will focus on the outlook, current accounts, foreign exchange, and other issues for the largest economies.
Presentations
Presentations will be uploaded after the session.
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Speakers
Stuart Mackintosh
The Group of Thirty
Leo Abruzzee
EIU
Leo Abruzzese is responsible for the Economist Intelligence Unit's editorial operations in the Americas. Based in New York, he oversees a team of country analysts and is responsible for EIU's business research projects in the region. He writes regularly on the US economy and leads the EIU's financial services coverage, which provides analysis of conditions in 60 markets.
Leo joined the company in London in 1998 as editor of ViewsWire, the EIU's daily political and economic commentary unit, which he built into a briefing service covering 200 countries for 300,000 business readers. He became Director of Wire Services for the EIU in 2003, with added responsibility for all of the company's daily analysis services. Besides ViewsWire, these included Risk Briefing, an operational risk service; Executive Briefing, which focuses on business and management issues; and Industry Briefing, which covers eight industries across all major economies.
In 2003 Leo was also named Deputy Director of the EIU’s Country Analysis division, where he helped to manage a team of more than 100 analysts who prepare the company’s economic, political and risk forecasts. He served as a macroeconomic analyst in the EIU’s Asia team, preparing reports on Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, and traveled extensively in the region. In 2004-05, he was the company’s chief economic analyst for India.
As Director of Financial Services, Leo is responsible for the company's analysis of banking and related activities worldwide and writes the EIU's quarterly outlook on the global financial services industry. He also oversees the company's Financial Services Briefing website.
Before returning to the EIU in mid-2006, Leo spent a year as lead editor for coverage of the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury at Bloomberg News LP in Washington. He guided the company's analysis of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and the arrival of the current chairman, Ben S. Bernanke. He also supervised coverage of US international economic policy, including disputes with China over trade and currency issues.
Leo has been responsible for editing many of the Economist Intelligence Unit's special reports, including analysis of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the US invasion of Iraq, the Asian tsunami and the move towards democracy in the Middle East. He constructed a political democracy model as part of that last project.
Before joining the EIU in 1998, Leo was Washington Bureau Chief and Editorial Director of The Journal of Commerce, a daily business newspaper covering international trade and business. He wrote regular commentaries during the 1990s on most of the major economic and financial issues of the day, including European economic integration, the Mexican and Asian financial crises and the Uruguay Round of global trade talks. He lived and worked in Washington for many years and covered economic issues before Congress and many government agencies.
Leo has a B.A. in liberal arts from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, and has participated in European research programs sponsored by New York University and the German Marshall Fund. He has written for Aspen Institute publications and been interviewed by the BBC and CNN. He has presented the Economist Intelligence Unit's global economic and political forecasts throughout the US, Europe and the Americas.
Nariman Behravesh
Exec VP and Chief Economist,
IHS Global Insight
Dr. Nariman Behravesh is Chief Economist and Executive Vice President for Global Insight (formerly DRI-WEFA). Directing Global Insight's entire forecasting process, he is responsible for developing the economic outlook and risk analysis for the United States, Europe, Japan, and emerging markets. He oversees the work of over 200 professionals, located in North America and Europe, who cover economic, financial, and political developments in over 180 countries.
Behravesh and his team were designated #1 in USA Today's 2004 ranking of top economic forecasters, and in Reuters' 2004 survey of major currency exchange rate forecasters. In The Wall Street Journal's annual ranking of US forecasters, Behravesh was the only forecaster to place in the top six for both 2003 and 2004.
As Global Insight's chief spokesperson, Behravesh is quoted extensively in the media on such topics as the outlook for the US and global economies, oil prices, exchange rates, the budget deficit, the trade deficit, globalization, country risk, and emerging markets crises. He is cited frequently in leading business publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, USA Today, Investor's Business Daily, Business Week, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes and U.S. News and World Report. He also regularly appears on national radio and television programs including BBC World Business Report, NBC Nightly News, CNN Headline News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), Your World with Neil Cavuto (Fox News), CNBC's Closing Bell, Bloomberg TV's World Financial Report, and All Things Considered on National Public Radio.
Behravesh was the host of the PBS television series "Inside the Global Economy." He has authored numerous articles in such publications as European Affairs and Credit Week, co-authored two books– Economics U$A and Microcomputers, Corporate Planning and Decision Support Systems–and was a contributing author to a recent book on scenario analysis, entitled Learning From the Future.
Before joining Global Insight, Behravesh was chief international economist for Standard & Poor's. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of Oxford Economics U.S.A., Inc. He also spent ten years at the WEFA Group, where he held a number of positions, including group senior vice president. Early in his career Behravesh worked at the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve.
Behravesh holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has lived in Europe and the Middle East, and is fluent in several languages. He travels extensively to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.