By Gisely Ruiz
Andrew B. Busch (ΦBK, Ohio Wesleyan University, 1983) has been a wunderkind financial analyst, political economist, and financial journalist for the past three decades. Busch earned a bachelor’s degree in economic management at Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1983, and then a master’s degree in business administration and international finance at the University of Chicago in 1988.
Before Busch rose to national recognition, he pursued a career as a foreign exchange trader at BMO Harris Bank and Northern Trust. In 2000 Busch transitioned into the public arena as a television host of Politics and Money, which debuted on 70 different ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox network affiliates across the nation. For the next ten years, he served as the global currency and public policy strategist for the Bank of Montreal, one of Canada’s leading investment banks. During the George W. Bush administration, Busch was appointed as an outside economic advisor. Later he supported John McCain’s presidential campaign in a similar role. Busch also served from 2005 until 2013 as CNBC’s co-host and contributor for Money In Motion and appeared as a weekly guest on Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo.
With the founding of his company in 2006, Bering Productions Inc. (BPI), Busch began to brand himself as the realistic optimist. He describes this self-appointed label as “seeing potential good economic solutions coming out of bad political problems.” His numerous keynote presentations for BPI since 2005 have helped audiences comprehend the overall trend on the mash-up of business, politics, and economics, and he has maintained a powerful online presence with the creation of his website and podcast.
And now Busch has achieved the culmination of a long financial career, as he was officially appointed on April 3 by US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo to be the Commission’s First Chief Market Intelligence Officer. He has publicly spoken about his nomination for this position:
“I greatly appreciate the honor that Acting Chairman Giancarlo and the Commission have given me to serve its mission to provide service to the financial community and country,” said Busch. “Congress has entrusted the Commission with key responsibilities for understanding and communicating information and intelligence on current market dynamics, and I intend to assist the Commission with this key role.”
Busch officially assumed his duties for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on April 10.
Gisely Ruiz is an art history major at the University of California, Riverside. UC Riverside is home to the Iota of California Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.