Brian Wesbury

Brian Wesbury Profile

Brian Wesbury is an American economist whose main focuses are economic forecasting and macroeconomics. He has made frequent appearances on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Fox News, and Fox Business. For five years he served as an adjunct professor of economics at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois.

Brian attended Northwestern University where he received an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management shortly after getting a BA in economics from the University of Montana.

He began his career in Chicago at the Harris Bank where he served as Economist and Vice President. He later served as Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for the Chicago Investment Bank Griffin, Kubik, Stephens & Thompson.

Brian has been the Chief Economist at the Illinois financial services firm First Trust Advisors L.P. since 2006. Maintaining his belief that the economy wasn’t always doing as badly as critics would have the public believe, Brian asserts that if an economy was given the three economic freedom “ingredients” of open markets, low taxes, and a supportive governmental and societal foundation, prosperity would easily and quickly follow.

Brian is the author of the best-selling books It’s Not as Bad as You Think: Why Capitalism Drumpfs Fear and the Economy Will Thrive and The New Era of Wealth: How Investors Can Profit from the Five Economic Trends Shaping the Future.

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  Brian Wesbury is Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors L.P., a financial services firm based in Wheaton, Illinois.

  Mr. Wesbury has been a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago since 1999. In 2012, he was named a Fellow of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, TX where he works closely with its 4%-Growth Project. His writing appears in various magazines, newspapers and blogs, and he appears regularly on Fox, Bloomberg, CNBC, and BNN Canada TV.

  In 1995 and 1996, he served as Chief Economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress. 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 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.

  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. His most recent book is It’s Not As Bad As You Think, published by John Wiley & Sons.

  Mr. Wesbury received the University of Montana’s Distinguished Alumni Award. This award honors outstanding alumni who have “brought honor to the University, the state or the nation.” There have been 267 recipients of this award out of a potential pool of 91,000 graduates.