Unpredictable 2008

For 23 years "The Economist" has published a special issue that predicts events of the coming year. The 2009 edition has just come out and it includes an apology from the editor-in-chief because the magazine just got so much about 2008 wrong.

On "The Takeaway," Daniel Franklin, Executive Editor of "The Economist" and editor of "The World in 2009" special issue, explains: "We always every year actually look back at the previous year’s edition and say, how did we do, what did we get right and what’d we get wrong. And of course we got quite a lot wrong last year because so many extraordinary things have happened in 2008. We saw some of it coming, but not all of it, and … so I thought it was appropriate to run through some of the things we didn’t get quite right …"

Some of the things they didn’t get quite right, according to Franklin: "We didn’t foresee the fall of titanic institutions on Wall Street, and we didn’t expect the government to have to intervene to the extent that it has.

"We got the election prediction wrong as well … we were expecting Hillary Clinton to win, and of course it’s always risky to make that prediction, but it seemed like the best guess at the time, and of course that turned out to be wrong."

As for 2009, Franklin says, in addition to the economy still being the dominating issue, "In politics … everybody of course is going to be watching the Obama administration, not just in America, but around the world. But it’s actually a big year for elections elsewhere as well. You have the world’s most populous democracy, India, has a vote; the entire European Union is voting in European elections; and plenty of other interesting places — Indonesia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran — all have national elections."

"The Takeaway" is PRI’s new national morning news program, delivering the news and analysis you need to catch up, start your day, and prepare for what’s ahead. The show is a co-production of WNYC and PRI, in editorial collaboration with the BBC, The New York Times Radio, and WGBH.