About Daniel Laufenberg, Ph.D.
Dan Laufenberg* is the author of the Laufenberg Quarterly website, as well as the economist for the investment firm of Stonebridge Capital Advisors. In both cases, he provides economic forecasts and financial market analysis to assist his website subscribers, as well as the portfolio managers at Stonebridge Capital, in making investment decisions, especially asset allocation decisions.
Dan retired in 2009 as chief economist and vice president of Ameriprise Financial, where he had worked for nearly twenty-two years. Dan started at Ameriprise Financial (formerly IDS Financial Services and American Express Financial Advisors) as senior economist in 1987. He was promoted to chief economist in 1993. As such, he established a reputation among his peers as an outstanding economic forecaster and was frequently interviewed and quoted by the financial media. Indeed, the fact that Dan survived in such a performance-driven job for as long as he did testifies to the credibility of his economic analysis and forecasts.
Prior to joining Ameriprise Financial, Dan had served for fourteen years on the research staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. Dan started at the Fed as a member of the Econometric and Computer Applications Section of the Division of Research and Statistics, which was the Section responsible for managing and maintaining the econometric model used to help generate the Fed's economic forecasts. After four years in this role, he was appointed to serve as special assistant to Henry C. Wallich, a member of the Federal Reserve Board. Although this appointment typically was for only one year, Governor Wallich retained him for nearly two years. Their working relationship was summarized in Governor Wallich's remarks at the graduation exercise of the Fordham Graduate School of Business ("Honest Money") on June 28, 1978, when he said "Nothing is impossible to the man with a competent assistant." Most of the remaining eight years at the Fed was spent as a member of the Capital Markets Section, where he was the Fed's staff expert on various markets and institutions, including municipal securities, equities, insurance companies, corporate bonds, and thrift institutions during its crisis in the 1980s.
Before leaving Washington, D.C. for Minnesota, Dan also served a short time as principal financial analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. As such, he was responsible for all financial analysis at the CBO. While he was employed in Washington, Dan taught graduate and undergraduate level courses in economics and finance as an adjunct associate professor at George Washington University, Syracuse University and the University of Maryland. Dan also took a year's leave of absence from the Fed to be a visiting associate professor at Iowa State University.
With nearly forty years of research experience, Dan has published articles in professional journals (including the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking), authored an article on small issue industrial development tax-exempt bonds in the Federal Reserve Bulletin, written numerous weekly and monthly economic commentaries (including the Economic Perspective for Ameriprise Financial), and co-authored several white papers (including Will the U.S. Life Insurance Industry Keep Its Promises? Solvency Issues in the 1990s). He also has been the keynote economic speaker at numerous conferences over the years.
Dan holds an undergraduate degree in business administration and economics from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, a masters degree in economics from Iowa State University and a doctorate in economics with a minor in statistics from Iowa State University.
If you are a financial professional and would like to learn more about how to subscribe to the Laufenberg Quarterly, please e-mail me at Dan@LaufenbergQuarterly.com
The views expressed here reflect the views of Daniel Laufenberg as of the date referenced. These views may change as economic fundamentals and market conditions change. This commentary is provided as a general source of information only and is not intended to provide investment advice for individual investor circumstances. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
*Dan Laufenberg is not affiliated with First Allied Securities Inc, First Allied Advisory Services and/or LPA Strategic Capital LLC.