Dr. Shilling is President of A. Gary Shilling & Company, Inc., economic consultants to leading financial institutions, industrial corporations, and is a registered investment advisor. Before establishing the firm in 1978, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of White, Weld & Co., Inc. At twenty-nine years of age, Dr. Shilling set up the economics department of Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith and served as the firm’s first Chief Economist. Prior to Merrill, Lynch, he led the U. S. and Canadian economic analysis and forecasting for Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) and was on the staffs of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Bank of America. He has published numerous articles on the business outlook and has written 8 books on economic forces and investment and business strategies. He received his B. A. in physics magna cum laude (Phi Beta Kappa) from Amherst College and earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.