Chris Varvares
Weidenbaum Center Senior Fellow
Mr. Varvares is an economist and thought leader with extensive experience in US macro/financial foreasting, modeling, scenario analysis, and economic policy analysis. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University.
Professional Background
- He co-founded the highly-regarded firm Macroeconomic Advisers (MA, 1983). He acted as a managing partner of MA through its acquisition by IHS Markit in 2017, when he became Co-Head of US Economics, serving in that capacity through February of 2024. IHS Markit merged with S&P Global in 2022.
- He began his career as an economist on the staff of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, working under then CEA chair Murray Weidenbaum, founder of the Weidenbaum Center.
- He now serves on advisory boards for the Olin School of Business at Washington University and the Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University.
- He is a former president of the National Association for Business Economics (2008-2009).
- He received his MA in Economics from Washington University and completed all the requirements for the PhD except the dissertation. He taught economics at Washington University in the 1980s.
- Varvares has decades of experience assessing the implications of economic and financial data, financial market developments, and changes in fiscal and monetary policies for the economic outlook and finanical markets. His activities included:
- Development of award-winning forecasts.
- Extensive modeling of the US economy and financial markets.
- Assessment of key issues in the economic outlook and policy.
- Presentation of forecasts and macro analyses to broad corporate audiences and policymakers globally.
- The creation and application of economic/financial scenarios for risk assessment and mitigation generally and specifically to support banking institutions in fulfillment of their CCAR and CECL obligations.
- Varvares continues to focus on key issues in the US macroeconomic outlook, including the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on the economy.