NEW YORK (AP) — Most business economists think the U.S. economy could avoid a recession next year, even if the job market ends up weakening under the weight of high interest rates, according to a survey released Monday.
Only 24% of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said they see a recession in 2024 as more likely than not. The 38 surveyed economists come from such organizations as Morgan Stanley, the University of Arkansas and Nationwide.
Such predictions imply the belief that the Federal Reserve can pull off the delicate balancing act of slowing the economy just enough through high interest rates to get inflation under control, without snuffing out its growth completely.
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High rates work to slow inflation by making borrowing more expensive and hurting prices for stocks and other investments. The combination typically slows spending and starves inflation of its fuel. So far, the job market has remained remarkably solid despite high interest rates, and the unemployment rate sat at a low 3.9% in October.
Here’s my gripe with economists. Even if this wasn’t true, wouldn’t be in the best interest of the economy to lie about it so the market doesn’t get spooked and end up doing things that would make inflation worse?
What other ‘science’ has that nifty feature in it?
You can make money on the economy going up or down, so there’s generally economists predicting both. There’s also a lot of economists that love to be the one to predict a recession, so they pretty much always predict one.
My initial thoughts exactly.
Regular medical science, it is called the placebo effect. It only works a bit. Not like you are going to regrow a limb, more like if you had a 40% of getting better on your own you now have a 50%.
Truth is economists can’t predict shit and recessions happen based on numbers not based on feelings. We can’t click our heels together and wish our way to a better world.
A lot of the “scientists” that get laughed out of their field but get their Netflix “documentary” deal seem to use this neat trick.
They’re particularly good at starting with a conclusion then shoehorning in a bad analysis with uncompelling evidence.