NABE CHICAGO Events
DO ECONOMICS MAKE THE MARKETS…OR VICE VERSA?
Asset Management In Fluid Economies & a World of Geopolitics, AI, Currency, & Debt
Speaker: Habib Moudachirou
Moderator: NABE Chicago President Kathleen Graham
November 10, 2026
3:30pm – 5:00pm CT
Union League Club of Chicago
65 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL
$35 NABE CHICAGO Members
$45 Non-Members
An afternoon French Apéritif gathering with light fare.
HABIB MOUDACHIROU, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, V-Square Quantitative Management, LLC; Board Chair, French-American Chamber of Commerce Midwest Chicago and National French-American Board Director/Executive Committee Member; US citizen & French national who speaks 7 languages; earned a BS, Physics with honors from The Sorbonne University, an MS, Quantitative Finance from University of Rennes and an MS, Statistics & Data Science from ENSAI—with both MS degrees magna cum laude. Habib has also invested in most global markets, crafted numerous risk management systems, and lived globally his entire career.
With NABE CHICAGO President Kathleen Graham as Moderator, this interactive conversation will focus on addressing the changes that have occurred/are likely to occur due to the fluid elements of geopolitics, AI, currency, & debt profiles. These changes are impacting the asset management world…and everyone’s economics.
NOTE: Asset management focuses on strategic asset allocation and managing investment portfolios for long-term growth. Asset management firms create strategies and products tailored to specific corporate and individual scenarios. In assessing whether economics make the markets or vice versa, three topics are top of mind:
EXPLOSION OF DATA: How do physics, finance, data science—the quantitative sciences—enable the better harnessing of the vast amount of economic news?
INNOVATION: What are the innovations that appear to be the major changes—positive and negative—that are impacting asset management?
CULTURE: How does the understanding of “culture” more effectively impact the management of risks and rewards in portfolio management?
TAKEAWAY: you will leave knowing more fully whether Economics make the Market or vice versa.
SUSTAINABLE FINANCE
From Basics to Latest Developments
Speaker: Professor Emeritus Ali Fatemi
Moderator: NABE Chicago Board Director Karim Pakravan
November 20, 2026
3:30pm – 5:00pm CT
Virtual Event: Free for NABE CHICAGO Members;
$25 Non-Members
NOTE: We are having difficulties with the registration form for this event. This situation will be corrected shortly.
In the meantime, please reserve your place by:
1.) Email graham@nabechicago.org your interest in attending this event.
2.) Please provide the following details in that email:
First and last name.
Email address.
Are you a Member of NABE CHICAGO, yes or no?
Optional: phone number.
As for group tickets to this event, contact Kathleen Graham at graham@nabechicago.org for options.
Professor Emeritus Ali Fatemi has recently returned from Global Finance Journal’s conference on “CSR, the Economy and Financial Markets” at WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Düsseldorf, Germany. Dr. Fatemi’s research deals with issues related to sustainable finance and has been published in many leading academic journals, including Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Economic Psychology. He’s listed in the Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and in the International Directory of Business Management Scholars and Research.
Moderator (and NABE CHICAGO Board Director, Global Financial Architecture) Karim Pakravan will guide the conversation to include the following topics:
What changes have occurred to Sustainability Strategies, given the new constraints (geopolitical risk, supply chain fragility, resilience levels, and energy security trade-offs)?
What are current economic CSR activities, both at the macro and micro level?
What are the new Pricing Sustainability efforts, including risk & equity returns?
How are the capital markets now responding to Sustainable Finance initiatives?
YOU — as an interested NABE CHICAGO person — ARE INVITED TO THE 40TH ANNUAL ECONOMIC SYMPOSIUM AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF CHICAGO
December 11, 2026
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
230 South LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL
Hybrid Event (in-person or virtual)
8:00am – 1:30pm CT
With an opportunity to also submit your own forecast, you’re invited to hear outstanding speakers giving the following talks:
Fireside chat with Austin Goolsbee, President & CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Consensus Forecast with Thomas Walstrom, Principal Business Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Energy Sector Outlook with Kenneth Medlock, Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University
AI & Labor Market with Kristen Broady, Senior Economist, Director, Economic Mobility, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
2026 Chicago Fed Contact Experiences Panelists:
Ping Liang, NUCOR
Fred Payne, United Way Central Indiana
Travis Simpson, Northwest Bank
NOTE: Cite NABE CHICAGO as the source for how you heard about this event.
2026 NABE Holiday Party
‘Tis the season to be out shopping for holiday gifts.
Back by popular demand is the NABE Holiday Party…AND it is still FREE for all!
After seeing downtown Chicago’s lights and festivities, please register and join us again, this time at The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank’s Research Department.
֍̥ FEATURED SPEAKER: Thomas Walstrum, Principal Business Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, discussing his Midwest Regional Outlook for this holiday season and 2027.
Optional: After the event, please join us for further conversation, drinks, and lite bites at Ceres Cafe Restaurant, located in the North lobby of the historic Chicago Board of Trade Building, 141 W. Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL. Please add to your registration the $15 per person pre-paid to cover Ceres costs if you are joining us for this optional post-event gathering.
֍̥ What a wonderful way to enjoy an afternoon off discussing, seeing, and spending money (of course, on holiday gifts 😊).
Cost: Members: $0 Non-Members: $0. Registration is required.
Optional After-Event: $15 pre-paid per person.
NOTE: REGISTRATION ENDS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10TH.
THE CHICAGO FEDERAL RESERVE REQUIRES ADVANCE REGISTRATION FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING CHILDREN.
Please also bring driver’s license or other picture ID for each person.
December 17, 2026, 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Research Department
230 South LaSalle St., Chicago, Il
THE ART OF ECONOMIC FORECASTING 2027
January 20, 2027
Union League Club of Chicago
65 West Madison Street, Suite 2500, Chicago, IL
11:30am – 1:30pm CT
$100 NABE CHICAGO Members
$120 Non-NABE CHICAGO Members
SPEAKERS:
) YELENA MALEYEV, Senior Economist at KPMG, NABE National & CHICAGO Board Director
) GORDON PARRISH, Economist at Free Market Inc.
) The NABE CHICAGO 2026 Forecast winner
Continuing the tradition of Free Market Inc., a full-service economic consulting firm that has hosted 15 economists for 20+ years in an annual private meeting where they tested their forecasting accuracy by each giving a “no holds barred, swing for the fences,” economic forecast for the following year. The person with the most accurate forecast from the previous year received a round of applause, a certificate, and bragging rights.
If you like, you can engage in “The Art of Economic Forecasting” by contributing at the event your own “swing for the fences” 2027 forecast via paper ballot in a sealed envelope, which will then be entered into NABE CHICAGO’s “The Art of Economic Forecasting” January 2028 lunch contest. Note: no one will know your 2027 forecast UNLESS you are the NABE CHICAGO audience forecast winner.
If you are the winner,
you will receive 2 free tickets to a NABE CHICAGO event of your choice.
you will present your 2028 key economic thoughts at NABE CHICAGO’s 2028 “The Art of Economic Forecasting” lunch.
THE PUBLISHED WORD IN THE WORLD OF AI
January 26, 2027
The Co-op
5751 South Lawndale Avenue, Chicago, IL
3:30pm – 5;30pm CT
Free for NABE CHICAGO Members
$25 Non-NABE CHICAGO Members
We live in a world where authors can write 250+ academic articles in 9 months; when editors and traditional publication processes many times have been abandoned; and when one has to ask: is what I’m reading “created” OR “regurgitated”?
Kevin Bendle, Executive Director, for one of the premier academic booksellers globally—The Seminary Coop Bookstores, aka “The Coop,”— will explore the changing landscapes of bookselling along with the economic realities that drive book promotions and sales.
Joining Kevin will be a publisher/editor who will cover the editing and publication changes (benefits and concerns) that have arisen as traditional methods have been tested by AI. In other words, how will we preserve the trust in books?
An academic author who has published both in the prior traditional and current AI-impacted eras will provide insights as to his/her perspective on what it is like to be an author now versus then.
MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW SOON!
NOTE:
NABE CHICAGO membership is not necessary to attend most NABE CHICAGO events.
NABE CHICAGO membership does provide you with savings on attending events.
NABE CHICAGO events can be paid by credit card or debit card with a surcharge added to the membership cost.
NABE CHICAGO events can be paid by Zelle or ACH with no additional cost.
NABE CHICAGO events can be paid by an individual or the individual’s company (with a surcharge added to event cost IF paid by credit card).
Registering for a NABE CHICAGO event automatically adds first-time registrants to NABE CHICAGO’s mailing list to receive updates and information regarding NABE CHICAGO events, and NABE CHICAGO news. These messages (not too many) are always GDPR compliant, private with your information never sold, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
NABE CHICAGO’s CODE OF CONDUCT & CONTENT/IMAGES CONSENT
NABE CHICAGO is dedicated to providing a professional safe environment for everyone that promotes open and objective discussions about economic issues. All interactions should be based on respect for others. We expect anyone attending a NABE CHICAGO event of any type—in person and/or virtual, formal or informal—and of any stature—presenters, moderators, attendees—to abide by this code of salutatory conduct. Disrespect will be addressed with party being asked to cease behavior and then removed from the environment, if necessary.
► Registration for a NABE CHICAGO event or meeting implies agreement with this Code of Conduct.
Registration for a NABE CHICAGO event or meeting also grants NABE CHICAGO implicit permission for use and ownership of all content, comments, remarks, recordings, and photo/video image rights associating with this event or meeting.