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Recapping the Worst Predictions of 2008

By Mike Krumboltz January 5, 2009 01:22:31 PM

2008 was an interesting year. Few could have predicted that the stock market would tank, Barack Obama would win the presidency, and, most shockingly, Guns 'N Roses would (finally!) release Chinese Democracy. In fact, most of the predictions from 2008 were amazingly wrong. The Buzz is full of articles recapping the worst (i.e., least accurate) predictions from last year. Read 'em and weep...

AIG's stock is poised to soar (and other unfortunate predictions).
Business Week hosts an article on some of the worst financial predictions from 2008. We know that hindsight is 20/20, but still these are pretty bad. Among the many gems...
• The National Association of Realtors declared that "Existing-Home Sales to Trend Up in 2008." Perhaps their graph was upside down?
• In July, President Bush said he believed the economy was growing. The opposite turned out to be true, as a recession was already well underway.
• A Wall Street analyst proclaimed that AIG "could have huge gains in the second quarter." A few months later, the U.S. government would take over the troubled company.

Why even play the season? Nobody can stop the Patriots.
Real Clear Sports picks through all the athletic predictions of 2008 and came up with a stellar list.
• A columnist from the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "no opponent in the solar system" will beat the New England Patriots. The Pats went on to miss the playoffs despite an 11-5 record.
• A writer from the New York Post wrote that the Tampa Bay Rays wouldn't make the playoffs. The Rays not only made the playoffs, but went all the way to the World Series before falling to the Phillies.
• The Dallas Morning-News declared that Tony Romo's broken finger would actually help the Cowboys. The crystal ball must be quite cloudy in Big D, because "America's Team" collapsed without their dreamy QB.

Bad news for psychics. Good news for the rest of us.
Psychics are paid to look into the future, and some of those predictions are pretty glum. Live Science recapped five professional predictions that we should all be glad didn't come true.
• Elizabeth Anglin, a "gifted psychic," predicted that a swarm of locusts would destroy wheat crops. As far as we know, the wheat continues to grow. Take that, Elizabeth!
• A "psychic medium" named Michael R. Smith predicted that "a major supervolcano is poised to erupt, sending ash all over the Earth, affecting world-wide political and economic systems." There was a lot of hot air from political pundits in 2008, but none of it was deadly.
• According to a scholar, Nostradamus predicted that a global famine would kill millions in 2008. Live Science notes that while the cost of food soared in 2008, a global famine "simply, and thankfully, didn't come true."

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