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What is the point of economic forecasts? A recent IMF report revealed the shocking extent to which economists generally failed to predict any of the recessions of 2009. Do we set too much store by predictions? Or have we simply got the wrong idea about what they are for? Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, looks at super-forecasters. And, presenter Ed Butler is joined by Peter Hahn, senior lecturer in finance at Cass Business School in London, and a former economic adviser at the Bank of England, Paola Subacchi, research director in International Economics, at the UK think tank Chatham House. And Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, whose latest book, The Shifts and the Shocks, examines the lessons learned from the financial crisis. Also, Comedian Colm O'Regan bemoans the unpredicatable Irish weather.
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