PRESIDENT NIXON'S economic forecast for 1971 makes the cheeriest of reading, but is it realistic or merely a panegyric to elevate consumer and business confidence? Businessmen, professors and politicians have been arguing that question since the President, in his late-January budget, predicted a 9% jump in gross national product, to $1,065 billion for the year. The debate intensified last week as Administration officials testified before the congressional Joint Economic Committee and encountered skepticism even from some Republican members. Representative Barber Conable of New York said that the forecast reminded him of a remark by an anthropologist friend: "The Zuñis realized that...
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