Hi there! This is the official website of journalist and author Spencer Jakab. If you’re interested in my book or my professional writing, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re more interested in food, travel, or just me personally, check out my private website, Cacophony and Cheese.

I write for and am the deputy editor of the Journal’s “Heard on the Street” column. It has run in the paper in one form or another since the 1920s and is regarded as the leading financial and economic analysis opinion column around. Before that I wrote the “Ahead of the Tape” column which runs each weekday and previews the day’s most important economic or business event. Prior to joining the WSJ I wrote “Lex” for Britain’s Financial Times, a storied column that carries no byline but is produced by a team of talented writers on three continents, and also the weekend “On Wall Street” column. I got my start in journalism at Dow Jones Newswires where I wrote an award-winning investing column and reported about energy, contributing several pieces to Barron’s Magazine.

My first career was in finance. I lived in Europe for a decade, mostly working as an emerging markets stock analyst and later the head of a stock research team at a major investment bank. I learned a lot, traveled to some very cool places, but got bored with corporate life and decided to write about money instead of making so darn much of it.

Nearly everything I know about investing was picked up on the job or through reading but, for what it’s worth, earned a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, a certificate from The Harriman Institute at the same place,  and an B.A. in political science from Brandeis University.

I can be reached at spencerjakabauthor (at) gmail.com and followed:

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