Tuesday, January 17, 2012

FINALLY - Authoritative -- and Believable Economic Good News

A few years ago, economist Alan Beaulieu stood in front of a packed Indianapolis crowd at Butler University and blithely predicted that the whole economic world was going to go to hell in a hand basket. A lot of very intelligent people were in that crowd. Most, like me, didn't do what he said. Way in advance he predicted what we now call the "Great Recession" would be The Perfect Storm. It was going to be exceptionally ugly.

Of course, it was.

At the time, I wrote a Chicago-based business column called the Hoosier Coefficient. So I interviewed Beaulieu and wrote a column about his predictions.

They. All. Came. True.

Every last ugly one of them.

Since I didn't do what he said, the economic maelstrom blew out the windows of my little business. We hung on by our fingernails. When he made his prediction, banks were throwing money at me. When he said that in a few months nobody would be loaning anybody anything, some thought him mad. He said cash would be king, and now I know what that means. I REALLY know what that means. In fact, my business became a little bank, as some client invoices started going 30, 60 and in some cases 180 days, before they were paid.

Just like Beaulieu said they would.

Now, in the past year or so, I -- like you -- have heard it all about our economic "recovery." Off and on, double dip or no double dip. It wakes me up at night and sends me to my knees.
Until now.

Wait for it.

Beaulieu's company, The Institute for Trend Research, has made it OFFICIAL. ITR has a 96% accuracy rate. Here it is:

The year 2012 will be the first real year of expansion and recovery.
The recovery and expansion will continue right through the first half of 2013, and then perhaps get a little bumpy.
ITR says we may have a little bump of a recession beginning in the latter half of 2013, but the economy will pick back up and then expand again from 2015 to 2017.
Now, according to ITR, is the time to market, position and SELL. Time to build up cash reserves, leverage favorable interest rates and GROW.

Did I say that I believe this forecast?

How can I not, especially when he was right down the line, point by excruciatingly painful point, when everyone else was saying "Oh, the housing marketing will rebound, we'll be okay" just a few years ago.

I'm ready to believe. And act!

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