Maybe I am misinterpreting your comment, but forecasting isn't the primary function of macroeconomists. Most of what will determine the future hasn't happened y

Maybe I am misinterpreting your comment, but forecasting isn't the primary function of macroeconomists. Most of what will determine the future hasn't happened yet, or hasn't yet been measured. And yet, public policy, fiscal policy, and monetary policy choices all have enormous effects, and those choices are ideally informed by people who have actually studied the economy. To put it in familiar terms, there is a difference between the climate and the weather, and we are able to influence the economic environment for good or bad in the same way that we could affect the climate by changing the atmosphere or changing the distance to the sun.