An American Success Story

Charlene Chu (Bloomberg photo)

Denver-born Charlene Chu, 42, is the "rock star" of Chinese debt analysis:

When top officials at the U.S. Federal Reserve want to understand the Chinese financial system, they meet Charlene Chu. Goldman Sachs, which isn't short of China experts, interviewed her and sent the transcript to its clients. And one of the world's most influential investment firms calls her a rock star

Ms. Chu's ascent to the top of the Chinese--therefore, the global--bond world is what used to be called an American success story.  After working at the New York Fed and studying at Yale, she moved to China without a job in 2005 "to dig deeper into China's banks and to learn more about her father's family." (Her late father was a general in the army of Chiang Kai-shek and worked as a dishwasher during his life in America.)

After the Fitch credit rating agency hired her, she unearthed hundreds of billions of dollars of previously unaccounted-for Chinese bank obligations, and the rest is history.

In the 1980's quiet, self-effacing Henry Kaufman moved world bond markets when he made his interest-rate forecasts for Salomon Brothers. Charlene Chu may not be the "mega-" bond rock star that Henry Kaufman was, but just give her time.