It would show an actual predictive power of such prognoses. Contrary to your assertion, I don’t necessarily see a clear signal in the stock market (which only

It would show an actual predictive power of such prognoses. Contrary to your assertion, I don’t necessarily see a clear signal in the stock market (which only loosely correlates with the economy) or other economic indicators. Job growth is still somewhat strong, for example. And many a temporary flattening of indicators have given way to another run. Of course as day follows night, recession has followed expansion. But the cycle just isn’t as regular as the 24h day, or the 12 months that make a year. Just as we have become better at predicting the weather or the path of hurricanes, economists have become better, but not perfect, at predicting, and even softening the blow of, recessions. OP was merely asking if news archives could be used for a sort of crowdsourced signal, a valid and interesting question. Google trends might also be interesting to look at, although I haven’t heard much of their flu prognosis in recent years.