Bob is Deputy Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors, L.P., where he is responsible for forecasting the U.S. economy and writing economic commentaries. 

With Bob’s projections, First Trust has won numerous awards for its economic forecasts, including being ranked #1 in the world by Consensus Economics for accurately predicting GDP growth and Consumer Price Inflation in the United States in 2022. In addition, First Trust is consistently ranked in the top f ive by Bloomberg for forecasting economic indicators. Bob has also won several Crystal Ball Awards from Zillow for forecasting home prices. 

Prior to joining First Trust in 2006, Bob was Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. While there, Bob was responsible for briefing the Secretary of the Treasury on U.S. macroeconomic developments, formulating policy proposals, and helping generate the official economic forecast used by the President for budget proposals. Day to day, he led a team of twenty economists conducting in-depth economic analysis and research. 

Between 1996 and 2002, Bob was an economist on Capitol Hill, including the last two years (2001-02) as chief economist for the Senate Budget Committee. While on Capitol Hill, Bob also worked for the Senate Banking Committee and Joint Economic Committee. Prior to his tenure on Capitol Hill, Bob was an economic journalist for Investor’s Business Daily. 

Bob received a BA in both Economics and Government from Georgetown University. He has been a CFA charterholder since 2003.