Business 2.0

Fun business mag. Useful and easy to read.

In the current issue, Global Insight's Nariman Behravesh is still bullish on the economy. Who?

The chief economist at forecasting firm Global Insight argued for nearly two years that the economic recovery was real while other pundits cried otherwise. You decide who was right.

As for 2005:

Does the rebound still have legs?

Yes. If 2004 was a year of corporate profit growth, 2005 will be one of job growth. U.S. companies have loads of cash and are spending it on technology. [See "How to Ride the Fifth Wave."]

Some say tech spending is going into a slump. What do you think?

Purchases of IT equipment rose by 12.3 percent last year, after adjusting for inflation. Our projection for 2005 is almost as high. Only about 40 percent of U.S. firms are using PCs and the Internet to any reasonable capacity. If the rest catch up with even the average company, we'll see huge gains.

Gangbusters GDP growth usually means bigger paychecks. Will we see that in this recovery?

Wages as a share of GDP sank last year to their lowest level ever, about 45 percent. The good news is that we've got it rising to just under 46 percent next year. Every 1 percent bump puts an extra $100 billion or so in workers' pockets.