Andy Kessler (born 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and author. He writes the "Inside View" column for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' opinion page. Kessler has worked for about 20 years as a research analyst, investment banker, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. He has written for ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'', ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', ''

The Weekly Standard ''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis, and commentary that was published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' was described as a ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', ''

The American Spectator ''The American Spectator'' is a conservative American magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. It was founded in 1967 by Tyrrell (the current editor-in ...

'', and

Thestreet.com ''TheStreet'' is a financial news and financial literacy website. It is a subsidiary of The Arena Group. The company provides both free content and subscription services such as Action Alerts Plus, a stock recommendation portfolio co-managed by ...

Early life

Raised in

Bridgewater Township, New Jersey Bridgewater Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located within the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region. Situated within Central Jersey, Cen ...

, Kessler attended Bridgewater-Raritan High School East. He has a BS in electrical engineering from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

(1980) and an MSEE from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

(1981).

Career

Finance

From 1980 to 1985, Kessler worked for

AT&T Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several labo ...

as a chip designer and programmer. In 1985, he joined

Paine Webber PaineWebber & Co. was an American investment bank and stock brokerage firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William A. Paine and Wallace G. Webber. Operating with two ...

in New York as an analyst of the

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

and

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

industry. In 1989, Kessler joined

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

as a semiconductor analyst before moving to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1993. There he worked for

Unterberg Harris C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, was a United States investment bank. Founded as C.E. Unterberg & Co. in 1932 by Clarence E. Unterberg, the firm changed its name to C.E Unterberg, Towbin & Co., in 1953. History The firm began as a niche Over-the-counter ...

as an investor, until starting Velocity Capital with Fred Kittler.

Writer

From January to March 2003, Kessler wrote and successfully

self-publish Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fr ...

ed a book, ''Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape From the Stock Market Grinder'', about working with

Jack Grubman Jack Benjamin Grubman is an American former managing director of Salomon Smith Barney and the lead research analyst for the telecommunications sector. Personal life He was born in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Isador and Mildred Grubman ...

Frank Quattrone Frank Quattrone (born 1955) is an American technology investment banker who started technology sector franchises at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse First Boston. He helped bring dozens of technology companies public during the 1 ...

, and

Mary Meeker use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , nationality = , citizenship = , education = DePau ...

, after hearing that traditional publishing houses would take over a year to publish it.Kessler, Andy
"Self-Publish And Be Damned? Not Always."
''

Online'', January 20, 2004. Retrieved March 17, 2008. Kessler's 2010 novel ''Grumby'' takes him into the world of super-hackers. The book is notable among books by well-known authors for being released first on Kindle and then in hardcover. This allowed Kessler to include a fictional cause for the flash-crash, which occurred just prior to publication, in the plot. Among his many other writings, in an April 26, 2007 guest column in ''

'', entitled "Trust Me", Kessler wrote in part: "There are plenty of things I don’t trust – like Wikipedia. I’ve watched my 15-year-old son and his friends take turns editing the page for the animated film ' Land Before Time,' flipping the gender of the character Littlefoot from he to she and back." In March 2023, Kessler suggested in ''

'' that the

Silicon Valley Bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is a commercial bank division of First Citizens BancShares. The bank was previously the primary subsidiary of SVB Financial Group, a Public company, publicly traded bank holding company that had offices in 15 U.S. state ...

"may have been distracted by diversity demands" in the lead up to its collapse.

Awards

* 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary for his "Inside View" columns in The Wall Street Journal.

Selected works

*''Eat People and Other Unapologetic Rules for Game-Changing Entrepreneurs'' (2011) *''Grumby: A Novel'' (2010) *''The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (And Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor'' ( ''The New York Times'' Business Best Seller) (2006) *''How We Got Here: A Silicon Valley and Wall Street Primer (A History of Technology and Markets)'' (2004) *''Running Money: Hedge Fund Honchos, Monster Markets and My Hunt for the Big Score'' ( ''The New York Times'' Best Seller) (2004) *''Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape from the Stock Market Grinder (

Henry Blodget Henry McKelvey Blodget (born 1966) is an American businessman, investor and journalist. He is notable for his former career as an equity research analyst who was senior Internet analyst for CIBC Oppenheimer and the head of the global Internet ...

and Me)'' (2003)

Personal

Kessler lives in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

with his wife, Nancy, and four children.

References

External links

*
"Inside View"
column at ''

''
@AndyKessler on Twitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kessler, Andy 1958 births Living people American business writers American computer programmers American financial analysts American financiers American investment bankers American money managers American stock traders Bridgewater-Raritan High School alumni People from Bridgewater Township, New Jersey Cornell University College of Engineering alumni University of Illinois alumni Gerald Loeb Award winners for Columns, Commentary, and Editorials