The Best Chair in the House
This former investment banker and lawyer has led the Federal Reserve through pandemic-era stimulus and inflation-fighting rate hikes.
Who is Jerome (Jay) Powell?
A person role required to manage assets with "undivided loyalty," prioritizing the public's interests above their own or any third party.
What is a fiduciary?
The U.S. Federal Reserve concluded 2025 with three rate cuts, bringing the target range for the fed funds rate to this level.
What is 3.5% to 3.75%?
California Government Code 53600.5 states that these are the objectives when investing public funds (in order of precedence).
What are Safety, Liquidity, and Return/Yield?
This economic indicator measures the total value of final goods and services produced within a country.
What is Gross Domestic Product (GDP)?
The acronym CACTTC stands for?
What is California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors
This Fed Chair coined the term "Irrational Exuberance" to describe widespread, undue investor optimism that drives asset prices above their fundamental value, often leading to speculative bubbles.
Alan Greenspan?
This type of financial institution is required to hold/safeguard assets such as bonds and other financial instruments on behalf of state and local governments
What is a custodial bank or trust company?
This global conflict ended in 1945 and led to major economic changes, including the U.S. becoming a world economic superpower.
What is World War II?
What is the standard maximum maturity for fixed-income securities.
What is 5 years?
Previous to 2025, the last time the population declined was in 1918 due to this event
What is the Spanish Flu?
This term describes the condition when a government spends more money than it collects in revenue in a single fiscal year.
What is a budget deficit?
This Nobel Prize–winning Chairman of the Federal Reserve stated before congress that they were not forecasting a recession in 2008, ironically, the same month the Great Recession started.
Who is Ben Bernanke?
This document outlines permitted investments, diversification requirements, and risk controls for public funds.
What is an investment policy statement (IPS)?
Currently trading at around 15.37, this index is often referred to as the "fear gauge" and has been volatile recently due to economic uncertainty.
What is the VIX (or Volatility Index)?
This security's maximum maturity was recently changed from 270 days to 397 days effective January 1, 2026.
What is Commercial Paper
This type of yield curve occurs when shorter rates are higher than longer rates and historically prior to a Fed rate cut.
What is an inverted yield curve?
Outside of of investment income these are the two primary methods governments generate revenue.
What are taxes and fees?
This former U.S. Treasury Secretary also served as the first female Chair of the Federal Reserve.
Who is Janet Yellen?
Public fund managers schedule investment maturities based on this forecast of revenues and expenditures.
What is a cash flow projection (or cash flow analysis)?
In 2026, for the eighth year in a row, this nation is the world's leading oil producer, extracting approximately 13.6 million barrels per day.
What is the United States?
This is the percentage of collateral that banks must pledge for public deposits over the FDIC limit.
What is 110%?
This term describes an economy where large business and high-income earners experience vastly diverging outcomes compared to small businesses and service workers, visually resembling a specific letter of the alphabet.
What is a K-shaped economy?
This independent board sets the financial accounting and reporting standards for state and local governments.
What is the GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board)?
At 6'7", this is the tallest person to ever hold the Fed Chairmanship
Who is Paul Volcker?
This type of municipal debt instrument is often issued to finance short-term operating needs.
What is a tax anticipation note (TAN)?
California is the world’s ___ largest economy, if it were a country.
What is the 5th?
These investment types, which include inverse floaters and range notes, are explicitly prohibited for local agencies under Section 53601.6.
What are derivative instruments?
This is the Feds preferred gauge to monitor inflation.
What is Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE)?
The total value of all outstanding U.S. government debt recently surpassed this significant milestone in early 2026.
What is $40 trillion?