economic forecast

A new economic forecast calls for the U.S. economy to make some modest growth strides this year, but not quite enough to significantly reduce the number of jobless Americans looking for work.

With all the varied estimations of the chances that the U.S. is headed into a new recession, someone must have gotten it right ... right? But whom?

Two veteran observers of the global economy, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and hedge fund manager John Paulson, offer mixed forecasts on immediate and long-term economic prospects.

If the agreement between congressional Republicans and President Obama is ratified, Pimco, which manages the world's largest bond fund, says the stimulative measure will contribute much to economic growth -- and to the deficit.

The S&P 500 has rebounded 20% since its July 2010 low, which comes as bad news to perma-bears like Nouriel Roubini, Gary Shilling and Bill Gross, all of whom predicted the opposite. This raises several questions about how stocks move, and why pundits say the things they do.

When it comes to predicting the U.S. economy, who has the best crystal ball? Lou Crandall, chief economist at economic advisory firm Wrightson ICAP, according to Bloomberg Markets magazine's new list of top analysts released Thursday.

Yesterday White House economic advisor Lawrence Summers expressed cautious optimism that the sense that the American economy is in free-fall would abate within the next few months. Now a survey of 53 economists by The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) shows that this group shares his...