Professor Tim Congdon CBE

After founding Lombard Street Research, Tim Congdon served for five years on the Treasury Panel of Independent Forecasters - Ken Clarke's so-called 'wise men.' He has proved one of the most consistently accurate voices on the British economy in the last 25 years.

Congdon correctly predicted that rapid growth in money supply in 1986/7 would be followed by a boom, and later by rising inflation. He foresaw that the 1990s would be a period of extremely favourable macroeconomic outcomes, with above-trend output growth. He later argued in favour of the rescue of Northern Rock, but also put the case for the Government to borrow from the banks in order to plough money into the private sector.

Professor Congdon has written extensively on the relationship between money and the economy, warning of the dangers of stagflation. He has also expressed increasing scepticism about the EU, and in 2010 stood for the leadership of UKIP.