Dennis Wesselbaum: How real-time data can lead to better decisions on everything....

How real-time data can lead to better decisions on everything from NZ’s interest rates to business investment

It is late July, and New Zealand is slowly receiving economic data from the June quarter. Inflation has hit a 12-month high, for example, confirming what many already suspected. But the country is still nearly two months away from getting figures on economic activity – namely, gross domestic product (GDP).

Matt Ridley: There are no experts on the future

Michael Gove was mocked during the referendum campaign for saying that “I think people in this country have had enough of experts.” Critics asked pointedly if he dismissed the expertise of doctors when ill. But subsequent weeks have left economic experts, at least, looking a bit less than the full Nostradamus.

The expert pollsters told the hedge funds Remain would win right up till when it lost, so the pound and the FTSE 100 rose, then crashed. The expert financial forecasters then told investors the FTSE 100 would fall further, but it quickly recovered all its lost ground and more. The expert analysts told us we should watch the FTSE 250 plunge instead, but that has now returned to the level it was at a week before the referendum.