Some, particularly on the left, were predicting it could carry Italy's prime minister out of politics for good.
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The challenge for businesses going forward, large or small, is adapting to this change in consumer behavior or even predicting it.
But these forecasts are often badly done, or worse, done with a purpose to influence the future while pretending to be predicting it.
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The state-owned forecaster has recently been criticised for predicting it would be a "mild" winter ahead of the most severe freeze for 30 years.
This from a man who at the end of 2000, when the Nasdaq stood at around 3, 500, earned hate mail for predicting it would fall below 1, 500.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration is predicting it, and other unconventional forms of natural gas, could rise from 15 percent today to become 57 percent of all such production by 2030.
I'm predicting if it's not Pawlenty, it's going to be Rob Portman of Ohio.
Meanwhile, the economy is merely catching up to what the stock market has been predicting for it.
The US - the world's largest wheat exporter - is also predicting that it will have a bumper current crop.
Economists are predicting that it could be years before the economy returns to the record employment levels reached in 2007.
Although quick verdicts where jurors don't look at the defendant can suggest a guilty verdict, prosecutors weren't predicting what it meant.
The current slump is already three years old and market analysts are predicting that it will last at least another 18 months.
In June the World Bank issued a perkier-than-usual report on the Palestinian economy, predicting that it would grow this year by 5%.
While that could produce the kind of downdraft in U.S. equities many market watchers have been predicting, it could also open the door for money on the sidelines to come in at lower prices.
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"This car will be our best-selling model, " he says in an interview with BBC News, predicting that it will outsell Land Rover's Freelander, Discovery and Defender models, as well as the full-size Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.
All of which makes predicting which way it will go very difficult indeed.
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But few other than Stephen Hawking wish to stick their necks out by predicting how long it will take (let alone lay money on it).
Needless to say, those who predicted with such confidence that America would make a hash of the war are now predicting confidently that it will mess up the peace.
But Train and other environmentalists counter that the science of predicting environmental harm before it's too late is seldom absolute.
The title of "Pretty on the Inside" telegraphs the gag from the start, but there's no way of predicting exactly how far it's going to go.
If one thing stands out from Mr Lewis's account of how a few individuals made fortunes from predicting the crisis, it is that it pays to be an outsider.
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"At the moment predicting monthly house price figures is a little like predicting the weather and it would be foolhardy to talk about a recovery based on one set of data, " said Ashley Brown, director of mortgage broker Moneysprite.
When it comes to predicting the market's bottom, all bets are still out.
For decades, psychologists have focussed on raw intelligence as the most important variable when it comes to predicting success in life.
It is therefore predicting a sharper deterioration as the economy slows down.
However, until now they have been unable to be so precise about predicting lung cancer risk because it varies depending on various different factors.
It is favoured by academics and journalists who often use the site's odds as indications of public sentiment, particularly when it comes to predicting US presidential elections.
Of course this is what every HD DVD fanboy is predicting, at this point it is all a dream that the studios will switch because HD DVD out sells Blu-ray.
The mere fact that so many analysts are now predicting such a scenario makes it less likely to occur, as history has proven most analysts are wrong in their market predictions most of the time.
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The IMF admits that the global downturn might be still more severe than it is currently predicting, and says that there is a one in four chance of a "global recession" when world growth falls below 3%.
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