Brian Wesbury is The Heartland Institute’s senior fellow for federal budget and tax policy. He is chief economist for First Trust Portfolio, LLC, in Lisle, Illinois. 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.

Wesbury writes a monthly column for The American Spectator magazine, and serves as the magazine’s Economics Editor. He is a contributor to the editorial page at The Wall Street Journal, and is a regular guest on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.

Wesbury is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and he is also an adjunct professor of economics at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. In 1995 and 1996, he served as Chief Economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.

Wesbury began his career in 1982 at the Harris Bank in Chicago. He has served as the Vice President and Economist for the Chicago Corporation, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for Griffin, Kubik, Stephens, & Thompson and Senior Investment Strategist and Senior Managing Director at Claymore Securities, Inc.

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 Mr. Wesbury’s first book, The New Era of Wealth, in October 1999.

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Brian Wesbury can be reached by e-mail at bwesbury@heartland.org. To schedule Wesbury for interviews or to speak at your event, please contact Events Manager Nikki Comerford at 312/377-4000 or by email at ncomerford@heartland.org, or by mail at The Heartland Institute, 19 South LaSalle Street #903, Chicago, Illinois 60603.