John Vincent Cable, generally known as Vince Cable (born 9 May 1943) is a British politician, and was the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats until the election of Nick Clegg. He is Member of Parliament for Twickenham and has been the Liberal Democrats' main economic spokesperson since 2003, having previously served as Chief Economist for the oil company Shell from 1995 to 1997. He was elected as deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons in March, 2006. He was acting leader of the Liberal Democrats on 15 October 2007 following Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation, but announced soon after that he would not be a candidate in the leadership election.

In his number 1 hardback bestseller, Vince Cable, 'the stage of the credit crunch' ("Daily Telegraph") explains how we got in to this mess and what it means. In "The Storm", Vincent Cable explains the causes of the world economic crisis and how we should respond to the challenges it brings. He shows that although the downturn is global, the complacency of the British government towards the huge 'bubble' in property prices and high levels of personal debt, combined with increasingly exotic and opaque trading within the financial markets, has left Britain badly exposed. Yet we need to be vigilant in our response to the dangers confronting us. Times of crises inevitably bring forth false prophets who offer easy panaceas and identify scapegoats. However, Cable shows that an insular response to the current crisis would be a disaster and urges us to resist the siren voices that promote isolationism and nationalism as the answer to economic woes. He argues that policy makers must keep their faith in liberal markets if the remarkable advances in living standards, which are now being extended to the world's poorer countries, are to be maintained.