Forecasting Quotes

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Forecasting our futures is built into our psyches because we will soon have to manage that future. We have no choice. No matter how often we fail, we can never stop trying.
Alan Greenspan

Ensuring the San Luis Valley’s Radar data is fully integrated into National Weather Service systems will improve weather forecasting and warnings across southern Colorado for the benefit of farmers, ranchers, tourists, first responders, water district managers, and the general population.
Lauren Boebert

I do believe it is important to be future-ready with a portfolio to be able to deal with however the market evolves. This is better than just forecasting accurately but in having the weapons ready to deal with the uncertainties.
Anand Mahindra

Computer modelling for weather forecasting, and indeed for climate forecasting, has reached its limits.
Piers Corbyn

And this is one way to do technology forecasting; get a sense of where technology is, and then anticipate the next upturn.
Chris Anderson

Part of my advantage is that my strength is economic forecasting, but that only works in free markets, when markets are smarter than people. That’s how I started. I watched the stock market, how equities reacted to change in levels of economic activity, and I could understand how price signals worked and how to forecast them.
Stanley Druckenmiller

There are domains in which expertise is not possible. Stock picking is a good example. And in long-term political strategic forecasting, it’s been shown that experts are just not better than a dice-throwing monkey.
Daniel Kahneman

A teacher told my mother that I would never become successful, which illustrates the difficulty of long-run forecasting on inadequate data.
Clive Granger

Forecasting Armageddon has become trendy of late, with a great deal of attention being given to an interpretation of the Mayan Calendar suggesting that Mother Earth is destined for doom in December of 2012.
Seth Shostak

Never forget this simple truism: Forecasting is marketing, plain and simple.
Barry Ritholtz

Commercial institutions, proud of their achievements, do not see that healthy living systems – clean air and water, healthy soil, stable climates – are integral to a functioning economy. As our living systems deteriorate, traditional forecasting and business economics become the equivalent of house rules on a sinking cruise ship.
Paul Hawken

Forecasting is simply not a strength of the species; we are much better with tools and narrative storytelling.
Barry Ritholtz

There is no formula that will guarantee success in forecasting, no magic words that will part the clouds. The real problem, as the old saw puts it, is that the future lies ahead.
Edgar Fiedler

In a sense, there are as many forecasting methods as there are forecasters. But I would argue that most projections are derived from two major methods: macro-econometric models and eclectic judgment.
Edgar Fiedler

It is important for investors to understand what they do and don’t know. Learn to recognize that you cannot possibly know what is going to happen in the future, and any investment plan that is dependent on accurately forecasting where markets will be next year is doomed to failure.
Barry Ritholtz

Forecasting is a maddening occupation. It is always fascinating and exciting and rewarding. yet it is also regularly exasperating and infuriating, occasionally even deranging.
Edgar Fiedler

We’re not very good at forecasting, and we don’t know how to measure the impact of economic policy.
Edgar Fiedler

The general public still expects a lot more forecasting accuracy than any of us can deliver.
Edgar Fiedler

Ways have to be found to maintain university research untramelled by requirements of forecasting application or usefulness.
John Vane

I never understand why ‘economist makes forecast’ is ever a headline. Whether the economist in question is from the International Monetary Fund, a City forecasting group or the Treasury – a forecast is still not news.
Tim Harford

Whenever you try to pick market tops and bottoms, you are making a prediction. Guessing what stock is going to outperform the market is forecasting, as is selling a stock for no apparent reason. Indeed, nearly all capital decisions made by most people are unconscious predictions.
Barry Ritholtz

A forecasting game is a kind of simulation, a kind of scenario, a kind of teleconference, a kind of artifact from the future – and more – that enlists the participants as ‘first-person forecasters.’
Howard Rheingold

I came up with a ‘forecasting cell,’ which is basically a mixed intention cell or chord that is a complete hybrid of a consonance and a dissonance, and what that does when you are improvising is lead you to where you are supposed to go.
Christian Scott

The reason why China forecasting has such a poor track record is that Westerners constantly invoke the model and experience of the West to explain China, and it is a false prophet. Until we start trying to understand China on its own terms, rather than as a Western-style nation in the making, we will continue to get it wrong.
Martin Jacques

The successful entrepreneurs on the free market will be the ones most adept at anticipating future business conditions. Yet, the forecasting can never be perfect, and entrepreneurs will continue to differ in the success of their judgments. If this were not so, no profits or losses would ever be made in business.
Murray Rothbard

Pundits are no better at forecasting election outcomes than they would be at predicting the final path of a hurricane. Smart pundits should consider either abandoning this activity or consulting with the geeks before rendering their guesses.
Richard Thaler

The funds from the sale were put into research and general teaching budgets at the university. Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates, Inc., is now a growing enterprise with many model and other econometric facilities.
Lawrence R. Klein

Now it will take a long time to scale biofuels, but I’m the only one in the world forecasting oil dropping in price to $35 a barrel by 2030. I’ll put it on the record: Oil will not be able to compete with cellulosic biofuels. If you do it from food, the food will get so expensive you can’t make fuel out of it.
Vinod Khosla

We talk about the Internet. That comes from science. Weather forecasting. That comes from science. The main idea in all of biology is evolution. To not teach it to our young people is wrong.
Bill Nye

Using a forecasting company is like going to a fortune-teller. If you believe the company and the color does not sell, who do you blame? The forecasters? No, you blame yourself.
Tadashi Shoji

Future forecasting is all about testing strategies – it’s like a wind tunnel.
Jamais Cascio

I think the association of economics with forecasting is unfortunate and is down to the fact that one great way to get an investment bank’s name on business television is to hire a guy called a Chief Economist who will go and prognosticate.
Tim Harford

The Fifties and Sixties were years of unreal optimism about weather forecasting. Newspapers and magazines were filled with hope for weather science, not just for prediction but for modification and control. Two technologies were maturing together: the digital computer and the space satellite.
James Gleick

Economic forecasting has actually got pretty good over the years, though admittedly, we don’t always get it right.
Eric Maskin

We spent a lot of time trend forecasting and collaborating on ways to design a fresh line of fashion-forward, affordable luxury.
Kourtney Kardashian

True enough, the Fed needs radical reforms. In particular, it needs to replace its failed forecasting models and be rid of the academics who overwhelm the Fed system.
Lawrence Kudlow

I will be the first to say that it is always difficult to get monetary policy just right. But the Fed’s analytical prowess is top-notch, and our forecasting record is second to none.
Janet Yellen

Speculative markets have always been vulnerable to illusion. But seeing the folly in markets provides no clear advantage in forecasting outcomes, because changes in the force of the illusion are difficult to predict.
Robert J. Shiller

Punditry is like weather forecasting: the winds can shift without warning. I remember when nobody would bet a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder that Bill Clinton would win the White House.
James Carville