Brian Wesbury is Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors L.P., a financial services firm based in Wheaton, 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."   He is also a frequent guest on Fox, Bloomberg , CNBC TV and BNN Canada TV.

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 2009 by John Wiley & Sons.

Bob Carey has over 20 years experience as an Equity and Fixed-Income Analyst and is a recipient of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with a B.S. in Physics. He is also a member of the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago and the CFA Institute.

Mr. Carey has appeared as a guest on such programs as Bloomberg TV and CNBC and has been quoted by several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Reporter, Bloomberg News Service, and Registered Rep.

Immediately prior to joining First Trust, Mr. Stein was Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomic Analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department.

At the Treasury Department, Mr. Stein was responsible for briefing the Secretary of the Treasury on macroeconomic developments in the U.S. and assisting in the formulation of policy proposals. He also performed televised press conferences on the state of the economy. Day to day, Mr. Stein was responsible for leading a team of economists conducting in-depth economic analysis and research.

Between 1996 and 2002 Mr. Stein was chief economist for the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill and an economist for the Senate Banking Committee and Joint Economic Committee. Prior to his tenure on Capitol Hill and the Treasury Department Bob was a journalist for Investor’s Business Daily, where he covered the economy and authored many front page articles.

Originally from New Jersey, Mr. Stein received a B.A. in both Economics and Government from Georgetown University and a J.D. from George Washington University. He is also a CFA Charter holder.