Some Economists Really Can Tell the Future

For clear evidence, look back at what a Morgan Stanley forecaster told the Chinese one year before the global economy tanked.

Fortune-tellers who know tricks of the trade can make a pretty good living. They speak slowly and in vague terms about "a long life with many ups and downs," or something similar.

Futurists in the financial sector can and often do play the same game. But it would be dead wrong to lump financial forecasters together with crystal-ball gazers. A lot of the former really can tell the future. This is quite amazing considering that economists deal with far more variables than, say, doctors who set baby delivery dates and meteorologists who know when rain is nigh.