Market Prophets: can forecasters predict the financial future

Like it or not, we all rely on market pundits. But can we believe a word financial forecasters say - about the future of the economy, or interest rates, or stock prices, or anything else? Or are these events thoroughly, permanently unpredictable - and our reliance on experts no better than superstition? In Market Prophets, David Stamp profiles the world's highest-profile financial forecasters, evaluates their track records, and helps every investor or financial decision-maker separate the wheat from the chaff. From Abby Joseph Cohen to John Meriwether, George Soros and Marc Faber, to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Stamp reviews the record, identifies key successes and catastrophic failures, and answers the central important question: Should we respect their predictions, or ignore them?

David Stamp was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in the Northeast of England in 1958. After studying German at Liverpool University and journalism at University College, Cardiff, he joined Reuters in 1981 as a trainee reporter. Since then he has completed postings in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Austria, The Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. He has reported from central and eastern Europe before and after the fall of Communism as well as from the former Yugoslavia, Australia, and the South Pacific. Since 1997 he has worked for Reuters in London, focusing on forecasts for the British and continental European economies.

David lives just outside London with his wife and two daughters.