"Those teams hate being in NIT bracketology, " said John Templon, who forecasts the consolation tournament for his Big Apple Buckets blog.
"We think they (corporate profits) are going to rise by about 50% over the next twelve months, " said Koll, who also forecasts Japan's Topix -- considered more representative of Japan's stock markets -- will climb to 1, 400 by the end of 2013 -- a rise of nearly 17%.
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In Moscow, the enterprise of scraping the snow off the streets and pavements, forming it into snow hillocks, carting it off in 6, 000-odd snow vehicles for dumping or melting, and finally zapping it with chemicals to speed the thaw is vast and costly (which helps to explain why Yuri Luzhkov, the city's mayor, threatened last year to fine meteorologists who make wrong forecasts).
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He has learned to believe the sales reps who are closest to their forecasts month after month, day after day.
But corporate managers are also to blame for searching high and low to find actuaries who would supply such inaccurate forecasts in order to lower pension costs and improve profits.
One of the consultants who prepared the parking revenue forecasts for the bond issue is being sued by purchasers of another municipal bond issue for inflating potential stadium revenues in a deal that was initially highly rated but now has fallen to junk status.
The number was also far better than forecasts from analysts, who were expecting a figure nearer the 44 level.
The airwaves have been flooded with gloomy forecasts from business leaders who are focused on the fiscal cliff and high debt levels.
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There are forecasts that the total number who are impacted by our activity in Brazil is more than 150, 000 people.
The private-sector economists who provide The Economist each month with forecasts for the big economies (published on our indicator pages) are allowed no such luxury.
Then there's the question of who would provide the verification data for the forecasts.
The new numbers are below Wall Street forecasts, although there were analysts who were forecasting even lower earnings.
But Ms Casey soon discovered a big problem: Mattel's official sales forecasts were so high that managers, who were meant to use them to plan production, routinely ignored the numbers.
Of course, all forecasts are only as good as the people who are making them.
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Axa Rosenberg's database evaluates each individual analyst's past forecasts and puts the most emphasis on those who have been the most accurate.
The Federal Reserve's rate-setters, who meet on August 5th, have already bumped up their forecasts for GDP growth this year, because of the economy's unexpected resilience.
Portfolio manager Richard Moroney, who's also editor of the Upside and Dow Theory Forecasts newsletters, finds that stocks earning consistently superior scores on his "Quadrix" quantitative tended to continue earning high scores for attractiveness.
For example, gurus who make frequent public pronouncements may be those most prone to extreme forecasts to attract attention (and customers) by stimulating greed and fear.
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Dr. Eugenia Ellis, a professor of engineering and architecture at Drexel University, who works with LED installations, said an efficiency improvement at the level Philips forecasts would be impressive.
Also, he said, people who book a flight just a day or two in advance should look at weather forecasts.
Conservative Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South), who sits on the committee, said he was finding it difficult to find reliable forecasts of future passenger demand.
The only people who should be worried by this proposal are those whose faith in the accuracy of forecasts of global climate trends is less than wholehearted.
Now, I should say right up front as the professional forecasters in each of our offices who contribute to the forecast frequently say, we are economists and not soothsayers and all forecasts have to be understood to be subject to substantial margins of error.
And Ed Randall, who proposed the amendment, said the Office for Budget Responsibility, which the government relies on for its economic forecasts, had become a "laughing stock".
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