I don't know. To say that someone is telling a lie (as in the article examples) implies he/she knows the truth and then mis-represents it (intentionally). I h

I don't know. To say that someone is telling a lie (as in the article examples) implies he/she knows the truth and then mis-represents it (intentionally). I have some doubts that most economists actually know the truth, very often they seem more like reporting their own take on some unproved (and often unprovable) theory, which can be stretched to mean everything and the contrary of it, and that causes the "vagueness" you highlight. Once said that predictions are tough, expecially when they are about the future, I think that astrologists are not that much worse in accuracy than the economists you see on TV.