Curated Financial Insights
Access the thinking that guides families with substantial wealth— sophisticated market analysis, portfolio strategy, and conversations with leading thinkers. Insights from someone who's worked for Forbes-listed billionaire family offices and global institutions.
TREUSSARD TALKS Podcast
Long-form conversations exploring markets, risk management, and wealth strategy with prominent economists, portfolio managers, and industry thinkers.
Jane Buchan on Alternatives, Diversification, and Investor Agency
Examining "alternatives" by mechanics rather than labels. Private equity as levered equity, private credit as floating-rate credit, and hedge fund strategies as instruments that change payoff shape. Plus why separate accounts, custody clarity, and transparent execution are first-order risk controls.
Economics That Matters: From Academic Theory to Real-World Solutions with Larry Kotlikoff
A conversation with Jonathan's former mentor about what economics really means for families and investors. Covering Larry's path from Harvard to Boston University leadership, the Auerbach–Kotlikoff model, and why fiscal language can mislead real-world decisions.
Defining FinTech: Innovation, Risk, and Financial Transformation with Michael Imerman
What truly counts as FinTech? Mapping the ecosystem, tracing the post-GFC innovation cycle, and separating durable signal from hype across AI, cloud, and blockchain. A conversation with UC Irvine Professor of Finance and author of The Economics of FinTech (2025).
Purpose, Access, and the Modern Investor's Journey with Anna Paglia
A conversation with State Street Global Advisors' Chief Business Officer about investing and purpose-driven leadership. From waiting tables in Rome to executive leadership at a $4.7T asset manager—exploring how ETFs opened market access and why investing is as much about behavior as strategy.
Fear, Not Risk: Rethinking the Equity Premium with Rob Arnott and Ed McQuarrie
This episode reframes asset pricing by replacing symmetric "risk" with asymmetric fear. Using evidence from the 19th through 21st centuries, Arnott and McQuarrie show that equity premia depend on cycle and starting conditions—and can go negative when FOMO dominates fear of loss.
David Kotok on When History Meets Markets: Geopolitics, Civility, and Capital
Kotok traces lessons from a decade in his family's grocery store through a principled career in money management. The shift from post-pandemic to war-finance dynamics, and what geopolitics and debt-funded military spending mean for asset allocation.
WEALTH, EMPOWERED Newsletter
Sophisticated market analysis and wealth strategy delivered twice monthly. Insights on risk management, behavioral finance, and building durable wealth—crafted for families managing substantial capital.
Fear Moves Markets. Keep It From Moving You.
Risk is measurable—you can quantify it, hedge it, diversify it. Fear is omnidirectional, contagious, and keeps you up at night. Drawing on experience managing risk during the 2008 crisis, Jonathan explains why distinguishing fear from risk matters more than ever for protecting wealth and avoiding emotional decisions.
What Are We Going to Tell the Kids?
Wealth makes some things easier and others far more complex. Drawing on experience working with Forbes-listed billionaire families and conversations with financial education expert Joline Godfrey, Jonathan explores how families can start talking about money ten years earlier than most parents feel ready—and why that matters for building lasting legacies.
A Little Perspective Goes a Long Way
When markets feel chaotic, data provides clarity. Examining Treasury yields, dollar strength, and economic indicators against historical ranges reveals whether we're facing a tremor or an earthquake. A framework for maintaining perspective when survival instincts shrink your mental horizon to hours and minutes.
Hey Boss, Have We Tried Boiling the Frog Instead?
When do tariffs actually make economic sense? Drawing on training with UCLA economist Earl Thompson, Jonathan explains the defense externalities behind import taxes, why globalization created winners and losers, and what high-yield bond spreads reveal about whether market stress is a tremor or something worse.
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Selected Academic Research
2020
Forecasts or Nowcasts? What’s on the Horizon for the 2020s
Research Affiliates, with Rob Arnott
2020
Oh My! What’s This Stuff Really Worth
Research Affiliates, with Chris Brightman and Amie Ko
2019
Game Changed, Problems Remain
Investments & Wealth Monitor, with Rob Arnott and Brent Leadbetter
2018
Hobbled by Benchmarks
Journal of Portfolio Management, with Rob Arnott, Mike Aked, and Omid Shakernia
2008
Contingent Claims Analysis and Life Cycle Finance
American Economic Review, with Zvi Bodie and Doriana Ruffino
2007
Making Investment Choices as Simple as Possible, but Not Simpler
Financial Analysts Journal, with Zvi Bodie
2007
The Theory of Life-Cycle Saving and Investing
Boston Fed Paper, with Zvi Bodie and Paul Willen
2005
The Non-Monotonicity of Value-at-Risk and the Validity of Risk Measures Over Different Horizons
Boston University Working Paper
2004
Predicting Bubbles and Bubbles-Substitutes
UCLA Economics Working Papers, with Earl A. Thompson and Charles R. Hickson
Selected Guest Appearances
Financially Fit Families with Joline Godfrey
Beyond piggy banks: preparing children for lives of true abundance—not just in dollars, but in community, curiosity, and resilience. A conversation about teaching kids how the world really works, including money.
Economic Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff
The 2024 market outlook with Jonathan's former mentor. Analyzing 2023's remarkable soft landing, potential risks ahead including commercial real estate and inflation, and why protecting capital matters more than chasing returns.
The Meb Faber Show with Meb Faber
Value investing, market cycles, and the psychology of long-term wealth building. A discussion about why common sense often disappears when investors approach financial markets.
Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart
Market valuations, bubble dynamics, and irrational exuberance. Drawing on his UCLA bubble research, Jonathan examines whether recent market strength is durable or requires caution.
Full Archive Below
Seeing Around Corners?
In the world of investing, when someone is regarded as a skilled investor, people inevitably end up saying things like “Jane can see around corners.” That’s doubling down on the idea of predicting the future with the extra kicker of implausibility that comes with defying the laws of physics. The angle is the angle, and you can’t bend light beams when convenient. Good luck with that.
Say Hello to 2024 and Say Farewell to “T-Bill and Chill”
Welcome to 2024. If the Fed is indeed on the verge of taking rates down, the era of “T-Bill and Chill” may be over. What happens when “T-Bill and Chill” is retired? There are two natural candidates for the next era:
“Other Thing and Chill.” Maybe something else comes along that’s as chill as 5% T-Bills. Everyone is happy and investors stay as relaxed as they’ve been.
“Hey, what happened to Chill?” Maybe when the vacation is over, stress surges back, and markets are dealt a bad case of the Mondays.
Meb Faber Radio Show – Jonathan Treussard & Nic Johnson
In today’s episode, the three of us kick around a bunch of topics. We talk about asset allocation, investor interest in commodities & TIPS, why Nic hates when people say gold is an inflation hedge, how financial incentives drive behavior, and why that’s an issue in areas like finance and residential real estate.
We Have Got to Do Better Than This
Financial literacy is a baseline amount of understanding around money concepts. Think of the difference between being literate (being able to read) and being illiterate (not being able to read). We’re talking about whether you can read dosage instructions on your kids’ cold medication. Without basic literacy, the world gets real dangerous real fast, for you and for those you care about the most.
Shelter from the Storm | Rêve Mieux
Barely two weeks ago, we were talking about interest rates jumping up in an historic way during September. Not to be outdone, we’ve now had an history-making jump down over the course of 3 days last week. How meaningful was last week’s decline in yields? We study the data to find out.
Gift Horse or Trojan? The Unusual Leap in Long-Term US Treasury Rates
September 2023 was a very unusual month in markets (October is equally unusual so far). Interest rates on government bonds jumped in an historic manner. At the risk of looking a “gift horse in the mouth,” let’s look into why this move in US Treasuries happened. It seems like a healthy intellectual exercise, especially when the horse in question is the one horse that sets the tone for all the other horse races around town.
A Few Words In Defense of My Country
At the last Fed press conference, Jay Powell basically took Goldilocks out back and shot her. Everyone should have a plan for the if and the when, and make sure you can live with what your portfolio looks like if we hit a pothole later this year or in 2024.
Who’s Gonna Play Sam Bankman-Fried in the FTX Movie?
Ethics in Finance Matter. Aligning ethics, morality, and self-interest in finance is crucial because that’s how you get real change and real alternatives for the benefit of clients.
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After our conversation, you might find us to be your first choice. If that’s the case, we can proceed to planning and executing a plan that makes you feel like you’ve regained understanding, agency, and control over your own wealth.
The content provided on this webpage, including links to YouTube videos featuring interviews where Jonathan Treussard is a guest, is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Treussard Capital Management LLC does not take responsibility for the comments or opinions expressed by others on these programs, including the hosts. We do not control and do not take responsibility for the graphics that shows and their hosts use. The information presented in these recordings is believed to be accurate at the time of recording; however, market conditions are subject to change. Viewers should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.