[Willie Green]

What's the source, some yahoo?

The dateline attributes the story to "PRNewswire", so you can view it the same as any other marketing scam.

[green iguana]

This is from The Conference Board. They are a New York based, well respected, non-profit group that does a lot of economic forecasting, conferences, research and analysis, etc. They compile leading economic indicators for a number of nations, consumer confidence surveys and do a raft of other business-oriented work. Membership is made up of leading corporations world-wide. Web site is: www.conference-board.org