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DEAR ECRI: It's Time To Issue A Simple 3-Word Report: 'We Were Wrong' (No Recession)
TBI ^ | 3-10-2012 | Henry Blodget

Posted on 03/10/2012 4:04:00 PM PST by blam

DEAR ECRI: It's Time To Issue A Simple 3-Word Report: 'We Were Wrong'

Henry Blodget
Mar. 10, 2012

Last September, amid the debt-ceiling debacle and Europe going all to hell, economic-forecasting firm ECRI declared that the economy was "tipping into recession."

At the time, this call was not surprising: the economy really did look like it was headed into the tank. ECRI's call also left no wiggle room: Unlike many mealy-mouthed Wall Street predictions, it was precise and clear: "The economy is tipping into a recession."

ECRI Managing Director Lakshman Achuthan amplified the call with high-profile media appearances in which he stated unequivocally that a recession was imminent and unavoidable.

Six months later, the economy is still growing steadily, if unspectacularly. In fact, GDP growth has improved since ECRI made its call.

What's more, ECRI's famous recession predictor, the Weekly Leading Index, is now improving steadily every week, suggesting that the economic outlook is getting better, not worse.

ECRI's forecasts are highly controversial on Wall Street, because ECRI refuses to explain what factors it considers when making them.

ECRI simply insists that its forecasts are never wrong.

In recent months, as ECRI's September call has appeared more and more wrong--again, GDP growth has improved since September--ECRI has done what many Wall Street forecasters do when their calls don't materialize: Explain that their call didn't mean what everyone thinks it meant and extend the time frame for their prediction. Some economic indicators are deteriorating, Mr. Achuthan told CNN recently, and the recession will begin soon.

And there's no doubt that a recession will begin sometime.

But it seems highly unlikely that what ECRI meant when it told clients last September that "the economy is tipping into recession" was that GDP would immediately improve and then

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; ecri; recession; recovery

1 posted on 03/10/2012 4:04:15 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

Whew! Glad that’s over!


2 posted on 03/10/2012 4:05:36 PM PST by Cyber Liberty ("If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost." --Winston Churchill)
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To: Cyber Liberty
Ha.

On Febuary 24, ECRI had this to say:

ECRI CHIEF ACHUTHAN: I'm Sticking With My Recession Call, The Numbers Are Still Awful

3 posted on 03/10/2012 4:09:40 PM PST by blam
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To: blam

It’s like telling us that the steaming turd obama and the democrat party has handed us is really a Baby Ruth bar.

No recession.

Yeah, right you jackasses; the recession never ended.


4 posted on 03/10/2012 4:23:08 PM PST by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: RJS1950

Let me amend that; the recession never ended for anybody except democrats and their donors/partners in crime. They are all profiting handsomely like Soros and Buffett.


5 posted on 03/10/2012 4:25:19 PM PST by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: blam
Six months later, the economy is still growing steadily, if unspectacularly. In fact, GDP growth has improved since ECRI made its call.

So, why are the personal income tax receipts of the 2 states that "added the most jobs in 2011" cratering?

California and Texas income tax receipts are doing a swan dive. Maybe they made it optional for the "new hires" to pay their state & federal income taxes...

6 posted on 03/10/2012 4:42:07 PM PST by kiryandil (turning Americans into felons, one obnoxious drunk at a time (Zero Tolerance!!!))
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To: kiryandil
How The Stock Market Resembles The Heart Rate Of A Dying Patient
7 posted on 03/10/2012 5:04:30 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
Prices are going up on everything!

Proof that the economy is back on track!

8 posted on 03/10/2012 5:45:09 PM PST by MrBambaLaMamba (This Message Contains Privileged Attorney-Client Communications)
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To: blam

I think I will go with ECRI. Blodget was one of the original movers and shakers before he was caught and disciplined. All of his forecasts have been within the official pimpline since then.


9 posted on 03/10/2012 5:46:19 PM PST by RetiredTexasVet (There's a pill for just about everything ... except stupid!)
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To: blam

It’s OK ECRI. I too am always late on my calls because I underestimate the power of the US government to delay the inevitable. You’ll be proved right soon.


10 posted on 03/10/2012 6:47:01 PM PST by Freedom_Is_Not_Free (REPEAL OBAMACARE. Nothing else matters.)
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To: blam

ecri is correct...the slowdowns in the rest of the world MATTER...in the last 10 yers correlations between nations economics have surged together...so when china, india, brazil, europe etc are falling america isnt an oasis

lets remember how innacurate mr bludgett was in 2000 when tech stocks crashed on his lousey advice

right now capital goods have no where to go bludgett u jerk


11 posted on 03/10/2012 7:32:15 PM PST by Understand the stimulus
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To: blam

ecri is correct...the slowdowns in the rest of the world MATTER...in the last 10 yers correlations between nations economics have surged together...so when china, india, brazil, europe etc are falling america isnt an oasis

lets remember how innacurate mr bludgett was in 2000 when tech stocks crashed on his lousey advice

right now capital goods have no where to go bludgett u jerk


12 posted on 03/10/2012 7:32:22 PM PST by Understand the stimulus
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To: blam

Lets see!!! Energy consumption is falling...Income Tax receipts are falling...Imports are falling...yet, we’re in this tremendous recovery. Either ECRI is correct or the US economy has invented a perpetual motion machine.


13 posted on 03/11/2012 8:36:59 AM PDT by NRG1973
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To: NRG1973
Another Plunge in 3-Month Rolling Average of Petroleum and Gasoline Usage
14 posted on 03/11/2012 10:19:08 AM PDT by blam
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