Actually competent economist JK Galbraith: "The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."
"The darned global economy kept chugging along, with month after month and quarter after quarter of continuous growth. Yet at the same time, global economic forecasters and financial pundits kept peddling their forecasts of doom and gloom, almost seeming to will for it to happen - and then seemed apoplectic and angry when it never transpired!"