Economic Forecasting

Evaluations of a Post-Recession

With the economy moving up from the bottom of the worst recession since the Depression Thirties, economic forecasts are popping out on all sides to tell the nation how far the upward currents are expected to go. A wide range of future happenings are being projected by the experts; the tone of their predictions ranges from foreboding to euphoria. In nearly each case, the envisioned future of the economy hangs on the individual forecaster's prescription of what should be done to keep the economy moving—or to prevent it from sliding back again.

The bumper crop of prognostications falls upon the nation at the same time economists are being chided—often from within their own ranks—for having failed to call the turns in the ...