Welcome to SmartMacro Labs

I started SmartMacro Labs because I saw a gap between what most macro training provides and what professionals actually need. Too often, education in this space stays abstract or overly technical, while the real work demands clarity, adaptability, and the ability to apply ideas directly.

Over the past two decades, I’ve worked across investing, policy, and academia. I served as CIO of a global macro hedge fund, advised the Governor of Colorado during the Great Financial Crisis, and now teach applied econometrics and forecasting as a Professor of Practice at the Colorado School of Mines. Each role taught me something different about how macro is practiced — the strengths, the blind spots, and the importance of making complexity usable.

Research has been a constant thread through that journey. In 2008, I co-authored Supercycles in Real Metals Prices at the International Monetary Fund, which introduced the statistical approach to identifying and analyzing commodity supercycles. That framework continues to shape how long-term demand shifts are studied. Most recently, in 2024, I co-authored a paper with the World Gold Council titled Gold’s Long-Term Expected Return, extending this work to one of the world’s most enduring assets. Between those bookends, I’ve focused on forecasting, macro cycles of growth, inflation, and liquidity, and now the role of AI in modern macro modeling.

SmartMacro Labs brings all of this together. Whether you’re an analyst, policymaker, or allocator, my goal isn’t just to share methods — it’s to help you build a way of thinking about macro that’s rigorous, practical, and adaptable to the world we’re in now.

Daniel Jerrett, PhD

Founder | SmartMacro Labs