The Futurist [in 1997] did a study of the predictions made within its covers over the past 30 years and found that the best futurists in the country had an accuracy rate of just 68%--they scored 23 hits, and 11 misses. In 1984 The Economist asked corporate heads, finance ministers, and London garbage collectors to predict economic prospects for the next 10 years; in 1994 the garbage men proved just as prescient as the CEOs, and both did better than the finance experts.