In October of 2007, Bankrate consulted with a handful of people from a variety of different fields who regularly ponder the future, and asked them to look ahead and see what they expect for 2008.

Our experts included Arch Crawford, an astrologer who specializes in economic and financial issues. He’s been named No. 1 stock market timer by several publications and frequently appears on television shows such as “Good Morning America” and “The Wall Street Journal Report.”

Listed below are some of Crawford’s projections for the year ahead.

“The dollar will continue to unravel, with sharp rallies from time to time. It’s in a steep downward trend. I think it will go down 15 percent to 25 percent by December 2008.”
[a month to go but so far dollar index is way up. wrong]

What investments will do well? “Gold, oil, metals — commodities in general.”
“A similar situation to 1987, (the Fed) may have to jack up the (interest) rates to protect the dollar at some point.” Rates will rise more than 2 percent in 2008.
[wrong - rates are at all time lows]

Housing prices will be dropping “20 percent to 30 percent.” The housing market “will crash” in 2008, “drift lower in 2009,” then start to recover.
[you dont need a crytal ball for this statement]

“The (stock) market will have a significant decline, one of the 10 worst in history, sometime between Aug. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009.”
[correct]

“Social programs will be an (election) issue because of a recession, and that would lean toward the Democrats. With recessionary forces in the economy, the public will probably lean toward greater social programs, which are usually championed by Democrats.”
[wow you dont say! again hardly a prediction]

“We’ll get out of (Iraq) when they run out of oil. I think necessarily because of the election, we will bring more people home. But we are not leaving there.”
[exactly-we will only be out when oil has run dry]

In 2008, unemployment “will be much higher.”
“Saturn is going to be in Virgo, which will be a major emphasis on health and health care issues.” Government, corporations and the president will be “fighting over re-engineering the health care system.”
[weak]

Crawford Perspectives is currently ranked #2 Market Timer for accuracy in 2008 1st QTR!

That being said — Arch Crawford, God bless him, also predicted that the real estate market would crash as Saturn entered and transited Cancer.

Not only did real estate increase in value during this cancer transit, real estate continued to escalate in value beyond anyone’s expectations. It only showed some signs of weakness (two years later) as Saturn transited Leo.

Yes, Arch does often get it wrong, but when he’s right, he’s dead on. Unfortunately, one can’t really rely on his predictions. Some people I know actually lost money based on Arch’s dire predictions — since being out of the market (while expecting a crash) can cost you a lot of money when the stock market continues to escalate during a phenomenal bull market.