Forecasting no quick recovery in corporate financing and merger activity, Goldman said it would continue to make "modest" cuts in its work force this year.
A return to surplus and lower government debt remain a pipe dream, while unemployment is being left to drift with the Treasury forecasting no reduction in the unemployment rate until 2017 – at the earliest.
The recovery since Oct. 9 indicates that the market is forecasting no new recession, even if the economy is not expected to return to the days of heady growth that investors once took for granted.
Think of weather forecasting: no matter how good the models get, we're never going to be able to predict that a particular storm will hit Philadelphia in a particular week 20 years from now.
The Charles Schwab Corporation, forecasting no rebound in investor sentiment this year, said yesterday that it would eliminate 11percentto13percentcent of its work force and warned that its first-quarter earnings would fall short of already lowered expectations.
This year's numbers show a 4% decrease, nearly $400 million in total, in spending from November 1 to November 28, and analysts are forecasting no change in the amount spent on Cyber Monday compared to 2007.
