Looking for a Reason to Believe

Things are gonna get better, or things are gonna get worse. Take your pick.

Two top economists, the kind that institutional investors rely heavily upon, have weighed in on which way the economy is going to go. And they disagree! (No surprise there, really.)

Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley is the more optimistic of the two, saying that things will pick up in the second half of this year and unemployment will begin inching its way down. Deflation? Fuhgeddaboutit.

Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs says the market is poised for a sharp slowdown in the last half of this year that will send unemployment rates shooting up again, potentially triggering deflation.

Here’s the article from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/business/economy/06deflation.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Now, if the guys who are supposed to know, don’t know, or can’t agree, what the heck are we simple humans supposed to do? Hold on tight, I guess.