Regarding Economic Forecasts

No one! No one but God Himself can see more than 6 months out on factory or business orders. Simply doesn't happen. As a sales guy with existing customers I can really only see about 30 days with certainty. Sometimes customers will give a quarterly outlook. Beyond that a sales guy has to give his best guess. Generally a pretty good one but a guess none the less for about two quarters out. Beyond, it is a complete crapshoot. So, the guys in the governement (hearts in the right place) say it will be better in 6-9 months. What else can they say? "It will be aweful for the forseeable future"?!? No. That would almost certainly be a self fulfilling prophecy. So, they talk about the next quarter where no one has any idea what will happen in the most positive terms!