Robert J. Barbera

Dr. Barbera was the third AGU Congressional Science Fellow, working in the office of Senator Paul Tsongas (D-MA) from 1979-1980.

Dr. Barbera recieved his Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1978, focusing on resource economics.  Prior to his fellowship experience, Dr. Barbera spent two years teaching public expenditure theory and water resources economics at M.I.T.

During his fellowship year, Dr. Barbera worked with Senator Paul Tsongas, focusing his efforts towards energy issues with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committees.  After the fellowship ended, he remained on the Tsongas staff  as a staff economist for one year before moving to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.  The move, he noted, was appropriate as, "money flows and water flows, it turned out, used the same models."  While working with the Banking Committee, Dr. Barbera helped to write the Chrysler bailout legislation.

After leaving the congressional arena, Dr. Barbera moved to Wall Street, where he has spent the last 17 years as an economist, earning a wide institutional following.  He is regularly quoted in the New York Times, the Financial Times, and USA Today, and provides commentary on CNBC and CNN.  He has served as the Co-Chairman of Capital Investment International, a New York-based research boutique, Chief Economist at E.F. Hutton, and Chief Economist and Director of Economic Research at Lehman Brothers.

Dr. Barbera is currently Vice President and Chief Economist for Hoening and Co., a brokerage firm in Rye Brook, NY, where he is responsible for Hoening's global economic and financial market forecasts.