Jim Rickards has an illustrious four-decade career as a leading authority on global economics, precious metals, and capital markets. He is a lawyer, economist, investment banker, and risk manager who is also a New York Times best-selling author, well-respected consultant, lecturer, and media personality.
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Originally from New Jersey, Mr. Rickards completed his B.A with honors and M.A. in international economics from Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently received a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Laws in Taxation from NYU.
Mr. Rickards then built a 35-year career on Wall Street, serving prominent roles at Citibank, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), and Caxton Associates. He’s especially famous for successfully negotiating a $3.6 billion bailout for LTCM when he served as general counsel in 1998. As his career progressed, Rickards became a senior managing director at New York City-based merchant bank Tangent Capital Partners LLC and senior managing director for market intelligence at Omnis, Inc., a McLean, VA-based consulting firm.
Coupled with his career on the street, Rickards also built an impressive career as a lecturer, consultant, and author.
As a lecturer, he’s particularly famous for a March 24, 2009 lecture at a Johns Hopkins University symposium. He warned of imminent U.S. dollar hyperinflation and gold’s weaponization by hostile foreign governments. He further cautioned about the dollar’s downfall and a new global reserve currency serving as its eventual replacement.
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As a consultant, Rickards has advised everyone, including the Pentagon, the CIA, Congress, and the Department of Defense. He famously testified before the U.S. House Science Subcommittee on Oversight on September 10, 2009, where he sounded the alarm on financial modeling dangers, valuation risks, and lessons from the 2008 financial crisis. He additionally facilitated the first ever Pentagon-conducted economic war games and served on the Advisory Board of the Center on Sanctions & Illicit Finance. Rickards is also known for his track record of accurate predictions related to events that largely affected global economics
As an author, Jim Rickards published six books, including the New York Times best-selling The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System.
Today he serves as Editor of the financial newsletter Strategic Intelligence and Director of The James Rickards Project. He also contributes Op-Eds to The Financial Times, Evening Standard, New York Times, and Washington Post, and guest lectures at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School and Johns Hopkins’s School of Advanced International Studies. Currently, Mr. Rickards resides in New Hampshire.
Education
- Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University (1973)
- Master of Arts in International Economics from Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC (1974)
- Juris Doctor from University of Pennsylvania Law School (1977)
- Master of Laws in Taxation from New York University School of Law (1980)
Careers
Lawyer
- Former General Counsel for Long-Term Capital Management (1994-1999), the hedge fund at the center of the 1998 financial crisis. Principal negotiator of the Wall Street rescue plan sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, eventually worth $3.6 billion
- General Counsel to Greenwich Capital Markets, the primary dealer in U.S. Treasury bonds at the time
- Admitted to the bar in 1978.
- Licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey, and the Federal Courts
Economist, Portfolio Manager and Advisor
- 1998 – Was the principal negotiator of the rescue of Long Term Capital Management, sponsored by the Federal Reserve
- Has held senior positions at sell-side firms (Citibank and RBS Greenwich Capital Markets)… buy-side firms (Long-Term Capital Management and Caxton Associates)… and tech firms (OptiMark and Omnis)
- Co-Founder and Chief Global Strategist for Meraglim Inc. (current)
- Has founded several hedge funds and fund-of-funds
- Has held all major financial industry licenses, including Series 3, Series 7, Series 24, Series 30, and Series 63
- Senior Managing Director at Tangent Capital Partners, a merchant bank based in NYC
- Senior Global Strategist at West Shore Funds
- Member of the Business Advisory Board of Shariah Capital, Inc., an advisory firm specializing in Islamic Finance
- Senior Managing Director for Market Intelligence at Omnis, Inc. in McLean, VA, where he specialized in the field of threat finance and market intelligence (as of 2009)
- Member of the International Business Practices Advisory Panel to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
- Serves on the Advisory Board of the FDD Center on Economic and Financial Power in Washington DC
- Director of The James Rickards Project, an inquiry into the complex dynamics of geopolitics + global capital (current)
Security Community Insider
- Has applied his financial expertise to missions for the benefit of the U.S. national security community since 2001
- 2009 – Testified before the U.S. House Science Subcommittee on Oversight about the risks of financial modeling and the 2008 financial crisis
- Advises the Department of Defense on global finance
- Led CIA Project Prophecy on Financial Markets
- Facilitator and participant of the first-ever Financial War Game conducted by the U.S. Pentagon
- He has presented papers on risk at Singularity University, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Author
- Editor of Strategic Intelligence, a financial newsletter
- Author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Death of Money (2014) and Currency Wars (2011)
- Full books list here, translated into 16 languages
- Op-ed contributor to the the Financial Times, Evening Standard, New York Times, and Washington Post, and has been interviewed on BBC, CNN, NPR, C- SPAN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox, and The Wall Street Journal
Publications
- “…economist who predicted the Great Recession” ~ Business Insider
- “…the man who predicted the biggest financial crisis in American history” ~ Q Magazine
- “…one of the most brilliant minds to emerge from Wall Street” ~ Executive Global
- “Richards has had a long history on the frontlines of financial panics.” ~ Yahoo.com
- “…one of the country’s most respected financial experts” ~ The Investor’s Podcast Network