I never understand why 'economist makes forecast' is ever a headline. Whether the economist in question is from the International Monetary Fund, a City forecasting group or the Treasury - a forecast is still not news.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think the association of economics with forecasting is unfortunate and is down to the fact that one great way to get an investment bank's name on business television is to hire a guy called a Chief Economist who will go and prognosticate.
Economists have allowed themselves to walk into a trap where we say we can forecast, but no serious economist thinks we can.
I'm not an economist and we all know economists were created to make weather forecasters look good.
An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today.
If you have to forecast, forecast often.
Economic forecasting has actually got pretty good over the years, though admittedly, we don't always get it right.
Of course, economic forecasts must be revised when new information arrives and are thus necessarily provisional.
Never forget this simple truism: Forecasting is marketing, plain and simple.
Forecasting is simply not a strength of the species; we are much better with tools and narrative storytelling.
The Economist is undoubtedly the smartest weekly newsmagazine in the English language. I always look forward to its quirky year-end double issue.