Chief Economist Stephen Stanley of Santander US wins second Blue Chip Forecasting Award

Top forecaster to accept award and deliver 2027 economic outlook at event on Oct. 13.

TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Stephen Stanley has joined an elite group of two-time winners of the Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy, earning this year's honor for producing the most accurate economic forecast from 2022 through 2025. The award is widely regarded as one of the nation's best-known and longest-standing recognitions for achievement in economic forecasting.

Stanley will be honored with his second Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the University Club of New York, where he will deliver his 2027 economic outlook. A livestream of the ceremony will also be available to the public at no cost.

Register to watch the livestream of the event Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern.

The award is judged and sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in partnership with the W. P. Carey Foundation. The winner is selected based on the accuracy of forecasts published in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter, which is compiled and edited by Haver Analytics. Analysts whose projections appeared in the January edition of the newsletter during the four prior years are eligible for the award.

"It is a tremendous honor to be representing Santander in receiving this esteemed recognition," Stanley said. "Our goal is to help our clients navigate a complex, uncertain, and ever-changing landscape. To be recognized for doing so with precision and accuracy over the past four years reinforces the value of our work."

Ohad Kadan, Charles J. Robel Dean and W. P. Carey Distinguished Chair in Business, will present the award to Stanley.

"In the 50th year of the Blue Chip panel, Stephen Stanley has once again distinguished himself among the nation's leading business forecasters, earning the top spot for the second time in three years," said Dennis Hoffman, professor of economics and director of the Office of the University Economist at ASU. "His GDP, inflation, and unemployment forecasts over the past four years were consistently impressive, and his near-perfect projections for 2025 gave him the final edge over the rest of the panel. I congratulate Stephen on this outstanding achievement and look forward to hearing his perspective on the future course of the economy, particularly inflation."

Stanley is chief U.S. economist at Santander US Capital Markets, LLC (SanCap), the institutional broker-dealer of Santander in the United States operating under Santander Corporate & Investment Banking.

Before joining Pierpont Securities, the predecessor to Santander US Capital Markets, in March 2010, Stanley served as chief U.S. economist at RBS. Throughout his career, he has focused on macroeconomic analysis, Fed watching, and federal budget and Treasury financing issues. He holds a BA in economics from Washington and Lee University and an MA in economics from the University of Chicago.

Media note: Please consider adding this event to your community calendar. Journalists who attend as members of the virtual audience may ask questions during the Q&A portion of the event.

About the Lawrence R. Klein Award
Established in 1981, the Lawrence R. Klein Award for Blue Chip Forecast Accuracy, presented by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in partnership with the W. P. Carey Foundation, honors the economist whose four-year forecast, published in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter and compiled by Haver Analytics, shows the greatest accuracy. Over the decades, the award has become one of the most respected accolades in the field. Recent winners include Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs in 2025, Michael Cosgrove of The Econoclast, Inc. in 2023, Douglas Duncan of Fannie Mae in 2022, Carl Tannenbaum of Northern Trust in 2021, and Ellen Zentner of Morgan Stanley in 2020.

About the W. P. Carey School of Business
The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is the largest and one of the top-ranked public business schools in the United States. The school is internationally regarded for its academic programs and the research productivity of its distinguished faculty members. Students come from more than 120 countries, and W. P. Carey is represented by over 140,000 alumni worldwide.

About Santander
Banco Santander is a leading commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain and one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization. The group's activities are consolidated into five global businesses: Retail & Commercial Banking, Openbank, Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), Wealth Management & Insurance and Payments. This operating model allows the bank to better leverage its unique combination of global scale and local leadership. Santander aims to be the best open financial services platform providing services to individuals, SMEs, corporates, financial institutions and governments. The bank's purpose is to help people and businesses prosper in a simple, personal and fair way. In the first half of 2026, Banco Santander had €1.5 trillion in total funds, more than 182 million customers, 6,500 branches and 185,000 employees.

About Haver Analytics 
Haver Analytics is a global leader in time-series data and analytical software, offering flexible delivery tools that meet the highest standards of economists, analysts, and data scientists. It is a premier provider of time series data for the global strategy, research, and quant communities, offering primary-sourced databases, a wealth of key survey and forecast data from industry partners, and a robust offering of archive databases that drive machine learning for big data applications. For more information, contact [email protected]. 

For more information/media contacts:

Shay Moser
W. P. Carey School of Business
[email protected] 

Andrew Simonelli
Santander US
[email protected]  

SOURCE W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University