Take a walk with me through a random sample of news snippets from the last day or two:

“Economists say home prices have farther to fall.”

“Economists say it is too early to suggest that broad improvement is at hand.”

“Economists say the number of service-sector jobs will grow by at least 500 million between 2004 and 2015.”

“Economists say the fiscal-stimulus packages from Washington to Beijing will cushion the downturn but fall short of preventing a world-wide recession.”

“Economists say Americans will remain in a funk until they start seeing fundamental improvements in the economy.”

“Economists say 2 million more jobs could go in the first half of this year.”

“Economists say we’ll hear more about the increasing unemployment rates over the next few months.”

“Economists say we will continue to see sluggish growth.”

It all sounds so official, doesn’t it? And believe me, there are plenty more where those came from. But who, exactly, are these economists? It seems like you can’t throw a rock without hitting an economist these days, and journalists can find one to support just about any point of view they want. It’s worse than “unnamed sources in the administration…”

The next time you read in the newspaper a sentence featuring the words “economists say”, just remember it was these expert prognosticators who–with rare exception–got the last 18 months all wrong.