Abby Joseph Cohen

Abby Joseph Cohen (born February 29, 1952) is an American economist and financial analyst on Wall Street. She is a partner and—as of March 2008—senior U.S. investment strategist at Goldman Sachs responsible for leadership of the firm's Global Markets Institute. Prior to that date, she was Chief Investment Strategist.^[1] In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal.

Family and education

Cohen was born to a Jewish family in Queens, New York, the daughter of Raymond and Shirley (nee Silverstein) Joseph, emigrants from Poland. She graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens.^[2] Cohen earned a B.A. in economics and computer science from Cornell University (1973) and an M.S. in economics from George Washington University (1976).^[3][4] She also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation (1980).^[5]

In 1973 she married David M. Cohen.^[2] They have two daughters.

Career

Cohen began her career as an economist in 1973 at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. serving until 1977. She worked as an economist and quantitative research director for T. Rowe Price Associates. She obtained her Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder designation in 1980. From 1983 until 1988, Cohen was the vice president in charge of investment strategy at Drexel Burnham Lambert.

Following the Michael Milken fiasco and subsequent United States Department of Justice investigation into Drexel Burnham Lambert's affairs that led to the firm's demise, Cohen worked for a short time with Barclays de Zoete Wedd, then joined Goldman Sachs in New York City as a vice president and co-chair of the Investment Policy Committee in 1990, and was named a managing director in 1996.

Successes and failures

She is famous for predicting the bull market of the 1990s early in the decade. However, she failed to predict the dramatic stock market decline of the early 2000s and developed a reputation as a so-called "perma-bull" and was ridiculed for her continuous bullish predictions after March 2000 as market indices collapsed.

Her reputation was further damaged when she failed to foresee the great crash of 2008. In December 2007, she predicted the S&P 500 index would rally to 1,675 in 2008. The S&P 500 traded as low as 741 by November 2008, 56% below her prediction. On March 8, 2008, Goldman Sachs announced that Abby Joseph Cohen was being replaced by David Kostin as the bank's chief forecaster for the U.S. stock market.

Civic works

Abby Joseph Cohen has served as a trustee of Cornell University, and since 2009 has been Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She and her husband have been supporters of the Jewish Outreach Institute, which helps to bring nominal Jews back into the Jewish religious community,^[6] and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.^[7]

References