John Hussman

John Peter Hussman, born on October 15, 1962, is an American philanthropist, economist, and hedge fund manager. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University, along with a master’s degree in education and social policy and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University. His career began in the mid-1980s as an options mathematician for Peters & Company at the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1988, he founded his investment company, which is now known as Hussman Strategic Advisors, establishing a foundation for his long-term investment strategies.

From 1992 to 1998, Hussman served as a Professor of Economics and International Finance at the University of Michigan. During the late 1990s, he gained recognition for his increasingly bearish market outlook, which led him to successfully anticipate the collapse of the dot-com bubble and later the 2008 financial crisis. After the market collapse in late 2008, he reversed his stance, indicating that U.S. stocks were then undervalued. Hussman manages funds focused on U.S. equities and government securities, employing a quantitative approach to macro-investing. His firm, Hussman Funds, utilizes a disciplined, value-conscious, risk-managed, and historically informed investment approach.

Beyond his financial career, Hussman is also a prominent philanthropist. In 1998, he shifted his focus to philanthropic efforts, funding charitable projects in areas such as autism, global health, education, displaced populations, homelessness, and research into complex genetic conditions. In 2001, he proposed the “excitatory/inhibitory” theory of autism, which has since become an established area of research. He founded the Hussman Institute for Autism in 2012, dedicated to advancing translational research and developing support resources for individuals with autism. Hussman and his wife, Theresa, actively participate on various non-profit boards, and he was recognized as the Philanthropist of the Year by the AFP in 2013.