About

My name is Ben Bakkum, and I’m the author of Macro Chronicles. I live in Brooklyn and do investment research and portfolio management at a robo-advisor. All views expressed here are my own.

Previously, I worked on the data team at GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that operates cash transfer and basic income programs across a range of African countries and has provided disaster relief in the US, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Yemen. Prior to GiveDirectly, I worked on the Private Bank Chief Investment Officer’s team at J.P. Morgan, where I contributed to macroeconomic and global financial market research and analysis. I am a CFA® charterholder.

I hold a B.S. in Commerce with a concentration in Finance from the University of Virginia, graduating with highest distinction in a second major in History. My thesis on antebellum American history received a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award and the Bernard Peyton Chamberlain Memorial Prize in History.

My analysis and data vizualizations are produced in R, and this is an RBlogdown site with tweaks made to the Cocoa Enhanced Hugo theme, deployed with Netflify.