I put them above most academic economists. Economics is a broad discipline and even macro specialists are most often not experts on monetary policy. Their resea

I put them above most academic economists. Economics is a broad discipline and even macro specialists are most often not experts on monetary policy. Their research focus is likely distinct and tangential, and their understanding of central banks is theoretical and abstract with little understanding of the actual goings-on in the real Fed right now(1). Fixed income managers are experts on it since they need to understand the yield curve, to which Central Bank policy is one of the most important variables. Most importantly they are practical experts and know the minutae of the actual decision making variables being considered right now by the current Fed. Yes there's some fixed income trades (in the short term quant space) that don't require such expertise, that's Taleb's Green Lumber problem, but that doesn't apply to PIMCO. Especially if we're talking about the lead at PIMCO. It's harder to get that job than it is to be a staff economist even at the Fed, so I would put him as close to number one in terms of expertise in understanding and especially predicting monetary policy. (1) I've published papers with academic economists. I have to say, they really don't know the practical details of central bank policymaking, and nor do they have to in order to publish more papers. That's not their job.