Scott Brown, Joseph Stiglitz Both Offer Their 2011 Predictions

A couple of prominent economic forecasters recently offered their predictions for 2011 that could make you helpful for the future and give you chills at the same time.

According to Bloomberg.com, Scott Brown of Raymond James and Associates recently stated that he believes that the US economy will add 2 million jobs in 2011. Bloomberg notes that Brown has been the most "accurate forecaster of the jobless rate over the last two years", according to their own calculations.

Brown predicted that the national unemployment rate will finish 2011 at 8.6%, which would be a full 0.2% below the current median forecast of 61 economists that were surveyed by Bloomberg. The national unemployment rate finished 2010 at 9.4%, down from 10% in December of 2009. (Source: Historical Unemployment Rates)

While 2 million added jobs would certain be welcome news for the country, it's important to note that the economy has lost nearly 9 million jobs since the start of the "Great Recession".

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In more sobering news, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz recently spoke at a conference where he predicted that there would be a total of 2 million foreclosures in the United States in 2011.

This would add to the 7 million foreclosures that have taken place since the start of the "Great Recession" in late 2007.

This dire forecast from Stiglitz came in the same week that Zillow.com announced that negative equity rose from 23.2% in Q3/2010 to 27% in Q4/2010. This means that 27% of single-family homeowners in the United States are "underwater" on their mortgages (meaning, they owe more than what the house is worth). In addition, Zillow also revealed that home values fell 2.6% from Q3 to Q4.

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Source: Bloomberg.com - Top Forecaster Brown Sees U.S. Adding 2 Million Jobs in 2011

Source: Bloomberg.com - Stiglitz Expects 2 Million U.S. Foreclosures This Year

Filed under: General Knowledge