Formerly chief economist of S&P Global US Regional Services Group, he was responsible for the Regional Core Macroeconomic Service and the Global Insight Real Estate and Construction Service. Since 1998, Jim has supervised the quarterly economic forecast of the 50 states and over 300 metropolitan areas of the United States. He regularly makes presentations of these regional economic forecasts and analysis to clients, conferences, governmental bodies and the press.

Jim is now responsible for customized consulting projects, specializing in public finance. These have included long-term projections of cigarette consumption, forecasts of capital gains realizations, analysis of the economic impact of the securities industry on New York State, analysis of the impact of changing oil prices on local economies and the economic impact of various facility locations.

Jim's academic work in the US includes a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics & Economics from State University of New York at Buffalo, a Master of Arts in Economics and a doctorate (ABD) at the State University of New York. From 1982 to 1987, he was on the economics faculty at Adelphi University, US.