The buy side says: “They do a great job handicapping legislation.”
The ISI Group duo led by Thomas D. Gallagher takes first-team honors for an eighth straight year. “They’re accurate and objective,” says one buy-side fan. In January the team warned that any financial reform bill would include a proposal set forth by former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker, a member of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, to restrict banks from proprietary trading in speculative investments. The so-called Volcker Rule became the focus of spirited and highly contentious debate in Congress, but a modified version of the prop-trading ban was included in the final Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that the president signed into law in July. Gallagher, 56, left ISI Group last month to join Scowcroft Group, a Washington-based political and economic consulting firm.
