How to see into the future

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Tim Harford is a British economist with a gift for translating economic theory and thinking into layman’s language, demonstrated through the series of Undercover Economist books ad newspaper columns. Here he talks about new research that is leading to much better forecasting accuracy – from the sub-prime crisis to the three-year container shipping doldrums, inaccurate forecasting, and those who produce it, get the blame for companies’ woes. Mr Harford says that hope may be on the horizon.