Predicting the future is always a risky business, often confused with prophecy.

But whether prophecy is in fact in a broad sense the prediction of future events, it often implies the involvement of supernatural phenomena, whether it is communication with a deity, the reading of magical signs, or astrology. Conversely, in a scientific context, a prediction is a rigorous, often quantitative statement forecasting what will happen under specific conditions. This is the reason why Economists generally speaking prefer to substitute the expression