I was a member of an economics forum during the 2008-2009 meltdown, and afterwards.
Economists don't know Mitt from Shinola.
They DO know how to keep their PERSONAL assets and @sses covered during economic "events".
The economic writer Andrew Tobias said in one of his books that he went to some economic forum, and they asked the attendees to predict the numbers for the next year, the one closest will win an Atmos clock.
He got the clock by simply taking that year's numbers, and increasing it by current/expected growth rate.