In this book, author Dan Gardner explains scientifically why most of the economic predictions made about the economy end up being wrong (and that "the more famous an expert is, the less accurate they are").

It's an important book that throws some much-needed cold water on the media's preoccupation with crystal ball gazing, which some people invariably use as a substitute for financial planning.

The book centres around a University of California study, conducted in the 1980s, on the accuracy of experts. The researchers gathered almost 300 experts and asked them to predict interest rates, the economy and growth rates. All up, they collected 28,000 predictions.

Then they waited to see how accurate they were. "The results couldn't have been clearer", says Gardner. "The average expert was about as accurate as a dart-throwing chimpanzee."