State of Business: The Shape of '62

In the four centuries since the German banking house of Fugger began to pay an astrologer to predict financial trends, economic forecasting has become so universal a pastime that today's conscientious investor or businessman is hard put to it to know whose voice to heed. One voice that is heeded is that of the National Association of Business Economists, whose membership is drawn from the top economists employed by U.S. private industry. A year ago, the N.A.B.E. produced a forecast of the 1961 business rebound that proved to be dead right. Last week, meeting in Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel, 193...