Never Saw It Coming
There are certainly plenty of candidates for the 2008 Missed-by-a-Mile Financial Prediction Award, but Standard & Poor's Investment Policy Committee shouldn't have any trouble making the finals.
The May '08 issue of S&P's Trends and Projections lead article: the "Committee believes that from economic, fundamental, technical, and historical perspectives, the worst of the recent equity price decline is likely over." Toward the end of the article: the "Committee is maintaining its year-end 2008 target of 1560."
The Library received this issue on June 11th; the S&P 500 on that date stood at 1335.49. At time of writing today, the S&P 500 is 874.26.
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