How accurate are economic forecasts?

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund put out its weakest medium-term projection for global economic growth since 1990. This had one listener wondering: How accurate are the IMF’s predictions? We’ll get into it and answer more of your questions, like why the U.S. Postal Service still delivers six days a week and what is the carbon footprint of space travel. Plus, we’ll explain why the Federal Reserve is losing billions every week.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “The IMF’s 5-year growth forecast is its weakest since 1990” from Quartz

• • “IMF Forecasts: Process, Quality, and Country Perspectives” from the International Monetary Fund

• • “Economic Forecasting Is Really Difficult. Just Ask the IMF” from Bloomberg

• • “The U.S. Postal Service and Six-Day Delivery: History, Issues, and Current Legislation” from the Congressional Research Service

• • “Six-days-a-week mail delivery saved; Biden signs Postal bill” from AP News

• • “Formerly a cash cow, the Fed is now losing ‘about $2 billion a week’” from Marketplace

• • “What if the Federal Reserve books losses because of its quantitative easing?” from the Brookings Institution

• • “The pollution caused by rocket launches” from the BBC

• • “How the billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution” from The Guardian

• • “Fact check: Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard rocket launch didn’t emit carbon” from USA Today

“Make Me Smart” has been nominated for a Webby Award! We are honored, but we can’t win without your support. You can vote for “Make Me Smart” until Thursday by going to marketplace.org/votemms.