Russell Investments' Chief Economist Found Dead In Apparent Suicide
Police say it appears that Dueker took his own life by jumping from a ramp near the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, Washington, the AP reports.
According to Bloomberg, Dueker, 50, had been missing since January 29, and friends and law enforcement had been searching for him. From Bloomberg:
Dueker worked at Seattle-based Russell for five years, and developed a business-cycle index that forecast economic performance. He was previously an assistant vice president and research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
He published dozens of research papers over the past two decades, many on monetary policy, according to the St. Louis Fed's website, which ranks him among the top 5 percent of economists by number of works published. His most-cited work was a 1997 paper titled "Strengthening the case for the yield curve as a predictor of U.S. recessions," published by the reserve bank while he was a researcher there.
"We were deeply saddened to learn today of the death," a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. "He made valuable contributions that helped our clients and many of his fellow associates."