Straszheim redux

Don Straszheim is taking a second stab at thinking deeply for a living.

Last month the former Merrill Lynch chief economist quit his job as president of the Milken Institute - the not-for-profit think tank founded by onetime junk bond king Michael Milken - and set up economic research boutique Straszheim Global Advisors in Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood. “I wanted to get back to the economy and financial markets,” said Straszheim, 60. “I started getting sucked into doing nothing but fundraising and administration. Life is too short.” He’ll continue to do some speaking and writing for the institute. In 1997 Straszheim ended a 12-year run at Merrill Lynch, worn out by the travel, instant analysis and endless presentations, and headed west to head the Milken Institute in Santa Monica. He reckons the timing couldn’t be better for plunging back into economic analysis. “Research on the Street has gotten a terribly black eye in recent years because it is so utterly conflicted. For independent research producers, the field is wide open.”

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