Based out of Chicago, Wesbury has won his share of accolades in recent years. The Chicago Tribune described him as Chicago's "most prominent New Era economist," yet he also knew when to step off the bandwagon: Wesbury led The Wall Street Journal's economic forecasting survey in 2001 by correctly predicting the recession. "Long before the National Bureau of Economic Research finally declared last month that the U.S. had fallen into recession in March, Mr. Wesbury had factored recession into his forecasts," the Journal noted. "He called for meager economic growth in the first half of 2001 and then a contraction by the third quarter. As it turns out, he was right on."

Wesbury writes a monthly column for The American Spectator, a conservative magazine. His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes and U.S. News & World Report. Wesbury's first book, The New Era of Wealth: How Investors Can Profit from the 5 Economic Trends Shaping the Future, was published in October 1999.

In 1995 and 1996, Wesbury was chief economist for the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Other previous jobs include vice-president and economist for the Chicago Corp., an an economist for Harris Bank. He received a master's degree from Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Montana.

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As head honcho of the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, Mishel directs its labor market and education research programs, which fit right in with the group's main goal: to promote a "fair" economy that does not overlook the interests of low- and middle-income workers. Mishel created the institute's most widely known and cited publication, The State of Working America, published every even-numbered year since 1988 and described by The Financial Times as "the most comprehensive independent analysis of the U.S. labor market."

Mishel received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin, a masters degree from American University and a bachelor's degree from Penn State.

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For all of Glassman's accomplishments in a long and distinguished career as a journalist covering economics, technology and financial markets, these days he's probably best-known for two things: writing a weekly syndicated financial column for the Washington Post, and co-authoring the book Dow 36,000, a position he defends to this day -- in Glassman's view, stocks generally remain undervalued and thus will keep rising over many years, the occasional bear market notwithstanding.

These days, Glassman's main interests include President George W. Bush's tax plan (Glassman supports ending double taxation of dividends); telecommunications (he doesn't like what FCC Chairman Michael Powell is doing); the importance of broad and deep capital markets; corporate scandal; and the stifling of energy development. Regarding war with Iraq, Glassman believes a successful war would help stocks.

Barron's named Glassman's latest book, The Secret Code of the Superior Investor, one of the 10 best investing books of 2002. However, Secret Code's main argument is something you've probably heard before: buy stocks for the long term.

He is also host of TechCentralStation.com, a public affairs website that concentrates on matters of technology and public policy.

From 1987 to 1993, Glassman was editor and part-owner of Roll Call, a twice-weekly newspaper that covers Congress. He had a long career in publishing, including stints as president of Atlantic Monthly, executive vice president of U.S.News & World Report, publisher of The New Republic, executive editor of Washingtonian and editor and publisher of the Provincetown Advocate. He has hosted a pair of TV programs, CNN's Capital Gang Sunday and PBS' Technopolitics.

Glassman's honors include the Norman B. Ture Award of the Tax Foundation for contribution toward sound tax policy and the Warren Brookes Award of the American Legislative Exchange Council for distinguished journalism. He received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, where he was managing editor of the university daily, The Crimson.

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Allen covers more than 20 companies in the construction materials, home furnishings, and home construction industries, including subsectors that range from deep cyclicals (cement, wallboard) to consumer products (furniture, carpet) to housing-related retailers.

She certainly knows her field well. Allen finished second in the home construction & furnishings sector of the Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" stock-picking survey for 2002, and fifth in 2000. At one point, she made Institutional Investor's list of All-America Research analysts for nine years in a row. And in the Reuters 2000 Large Company survey, executives of companies covered coverage by Allen ranked her second among all analysts covering the housing and building materials sectors.

Allen received a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama. She also has an MBA with a finance concentration, and a master's degree in Chinese history.

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