Good News. Or Not. Maybe.

Florida economic prognosticator, Hank Fishkind, has reported to the local real estate community that " ....the nation is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression

I'm sure the crowd gasped at that news flash.

I'll bet this guy gets paid LOTS to figure this stuff out.

This is the same revered economist who determined that the real estate market here in the Sunshine State had hit bottom in 2007. Then, 2008. Now, 2009.

The article mentioned that he joked about being so wrong with his recent predictions and that the audience "didn't seem to mind."

Does it bother anybody else that these are the guys we look to forecast what is coming down the pike so we can react? Are these the same kind of people we are counting on to know how to fix the economy? Would we be just as well off a spinning a giant Chuck-A-Luck wheel with various economic scenarios attached to it? February 2nd is coming--can we ask "Phil" what he thinks about the economy, in addition to the weather?



vs.



Who Would You Trust???

Hank could learn a thing or two from that old groundhog--he works one day a year, gets worldwide coverage, makes only one prediction a year and is treated like a rock star. Phil should get the hell out of Punxsutawney and move to Sarasota--he'd fit right in with our work ethic here.

So, given Fishkind's past track record, should we believe him this time when he says that 2009 will be a "tough year" or should we plug in the "Fishkind Factor" and think that just the opposite will be true?

Then, again, he predicted (with great certainty, I'm sure) that "the proposed $775 billion stimulus plan will be more than enough to pull us out by November."

So, to wrap up Happy Hank's view of our economic future, he says it will either get better or it won't.

I wonder if anybody asked him about that '6 more weeks of winter' thing.