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Sandy Leeds

Sandy Leeds
Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Department of Finance
McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin
Sandy Leeds, CFA is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin. He teaches graduate level classes in the MBA program and also serves as President of The MBA Investment Fund, L.L.C. Prior to teaching, he had careers as a lawyer and a money manager. He did his undergraduate work at The University of Alabama and also has a law degree from The University of Virginia and an MBA from the University of Texas. At UT, he has received many teaching awards, including Outstanding Professor in the MBA Program. He is married and has three children.

Posts by Sandy Leeds

Notes from the Fed: Robert Kaplan Gives Global Outlook

Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Finance Sandy Leeds shares his observations from Kaplan's visit to McCombs.

How to End 'Too Big to Fail'

Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher gives ideas on a complex and risky situation.

The Missing Middle: Job Polarization and Income Inequality

The scarcity of middle-skill jobs is unlikely to be resolved soon, even with continued economic recovery.

What Would Happen If We Let the Tax Cuts Lapse?

Increasing tax rates might trigger a recession, but overspending and maintaining low rates could be more harmful in the long run.

The Affordable Care Act: Rombamacare

Partisanship in Congress is blocking meaningful healthcare reform, but the basic concepts that make up the Affordable Care Act are nothing new.

Ten Things You Should Know About the Disability Disaster

Disability insurance fraud is becoming a serious economic problem. What can the government do to prevent it?

They’re Turning on Each Other

The public's distrust for bankers has led to rulemaking that will hurt our nation’s competitiveness.

Buffett Sees Evidence of Economic Comeback

Productive assets deliver an output that retains purchasing power even in times of inflation.

2012 Begins with a Mixed Economic Outlook

Employment remains low, but consumers are expressing some optimism leading into the new year.

End Bonuses for Bankers

Bankers are rewarded for taking risks with other people’s money. Cutting bonuses could make them less inclined to do so.
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Posts about Sandy Leeds

Open Sesame: Revealing the Risk and Reward of an Alibaba IPO

September 10, 2014
Alibaba’s IPO is on the horizon and offers shareholders a piece of the Chinese consumer market. But while it’s trading on the NYSE, its corporate roots are entrenched in Chinese culture and politics. McCombs experts explain why this should matter to investors.

Twenty Things All Americans Should Know About the Economy

November 21, 2013
McCombs Distinguished Senior Lecturer Sandy Leeds says it’s time to start paying attention to the true causes of the country’s slow economic growth.

Too Big To Fail

March 21, 2013

Finance maestro Sandy Leeds explains what goes wrong when a handful of US banks get too big for their britches.

Taxmageddon: Is the Fiscal Cliff an Economic Doomsday?

December 8, 2012

As 2012 ticks down to its final days, it’s not just buffs of the Mayan calendar who fear the end of the world as we know it. Assuming doomsday does not arrive Dec. 21, the nation could face another apocalyptic scenario just 11 days later. Some economists call it Taxmageddon and others the Fiscal Cliff — a half-trillion-dollar smorgasbord of expiring tax cuts, along with benefit and budget cuts, that start kicking in on New Year’s Day. They warn it could topple the U.S. economy back into recession.

A Taxing Business: Understanding America’s Corporate Tax System

July 9, 2012

Confusion, avoidance, loopholes, manipulation. The current state of American corporate income tax evokes all these words and more. By one measure, U.S. companies pay the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world: 39.2 percent, versus an average of 25.4 percent. But by other measures, they pay some of the lowest amounts. In 2009, corporate taxes were 1.7 percent of America’s gross domestic product, compared to an industrialized average of 2.8 percent. The tax contributes a scant 8 percent of Uncle Sam’s revenues. “It’s a small percentage, and we’re spending a lot to avoid it,” says Sandy Leeds, senior lecturer in finance at McCombs.

UT Experts: Health Care Ruling Will Spur Preparations by Companies

June 28, 2012

Six faculty members at The University of Texas at Austin share their thoughts on the politics, procedure, and implications of the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act.

Loopholes: Spending Dressed Up as Tax Cuts?

April 17, 2012

Tax breaks, loopholes, shelters, and subsidies are really government spending by another name, most economists say. Congressional budget rules call them “tax expenditures” and define them as, “Those revenue losses attributable to provisions of the Federal tax laws which allow a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction from gross income or which provide a special credit, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability.” Whatever you call them, they may be costing the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars each year. 

Debt Ceiling Defined

July 29, 2011

Lingo video: The debt ceiling is a simple economic concept that has brought the nation to its knees. But what is it, and why is it such a contentious issue?

Part 4: Solving the Deficit Step By Step

April 27, 2011

Your doctor sounds the alarm: Your weight has hit the danger zone. You ask for a miracle drug that could slim you down overnight. His matter-of-fact reply: Eat less and exercise more. Like losing weight, the steps needed to deflate the federal deficit are not drastic, say faculty at the McCombs School of Business. The chief obstacle is not economic practicality but political willpower. “We’re a wealthy country with a solid central bank,” says Dean Thomas Gilligan. “We can work through this.” How much should America restrict its fiscal calorie intake? A reasonable target, say many economists, is to maintain publicly-held national debt at its current 62 percent of Gross Domestic Product. With no change in current policies, that number would top 350 percent in 75 years. To bridge that gap, calculates the Treasury Department, will take spending cuts and revenue hikes that add up to 2.4 percent of GDP. That would amount to $360 billion this year, and larger amounts as the economy grows.  “That’s what it needs to add up to immediately, and it needs to be lasting,” says McCombs senior lecturer Sandy Leeds. “If we can keep our debt-to-GDP ratio constant over 75 years, it would be an amazing feat.”

Part 3: The Deficit Takes a Big Bite Out of Our Economy

April 26, 2011

When the world’s largest bond fund dumps the world’s safest bonds, the investment world takes notice. That happened over the past year, as the PIMCO Total Return Fund reduced its hoard of U.S. Treasury securities from $147 billion to zero. The culprit, said manager Bill Gross, was the national debt. To date, America’s mounting deficits have been an abstraction, a threat a couple of generations down the line. But there’s evidence, say faculty at the McCombs School of Business, that they’re starting to take a toll on the U.S. economy. “We’re getting close to the tipping point,” says McCombs finance professor Lewis Spellman. One closely watched indicator is the ratio of the nation’s debt to its Gross Domestic Product. Four years ago, it stood at 64 percent. At the end of 2010, it hit 93 percent. That figure sets off alarm bells for some economists.

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