Brian S. Wesbury is Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors L.P., a financial services firm based in Lisle, Illinois and serves on the Board of Advisors to First Trust Capital Partners, an affiliated private-equity firm. The Wall Street Journal ranked Mr.Wesbury the nation's #1 U.S. economic forecaster in 2001 and USA Today ranked him as one of the nation's top 10 forecasters in 2004.

Mr. Wesbury writes frequently for the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and is the Economics Editor of "The American Spectator." In 2007, he was named a CNBC Contributor. Mr. Wesbury is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and is also an adjunct professor of economics at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Additionally, he sits on the Board of Managers of Three-Sixty Advisory Group, a Pasadena, California based consulting and private-equity firm.

Mr. Wesbury began his career in 1982 at the Harris Bank in Chicago. Former positions include Vice President and Economist for the Chicago Corporation and Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for Griffin, Kubik, Stephens, & Thompson. In 1995 and 1996, he served as Chief Economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. Mr. Wesbury received an M.B.A. from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Montana. McGraw- Hill published his first book, The New Era of Wealth, in October 1999. He is currently working on a new book, scheduled to be published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons.