The iconic US baseball coach Yogi Berra once said: ‘It’s tough making predictions, especially about the future.’ If that’s true for baseball, it’s even more true for economies, companies and individual business decision making.
In August 2007, the Bank of England’s survey of leading economists predicted that 2008 and 2009 would see a continuation of growth at around 2.4%. This would have been enough to see unemployment fall and taxation levels remain high enough to pay for the government’s ambitious plans to boost standards in education and health. Instead, the economy struggled in 2008 and fell 5% in 2009 — its worst performance for over 80 years. When the queen asked why economists hadn’t seen the recession coming, there was an embarrassed silence.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
