Each quarter Bloomberg News surveys 60 economists for projections on the US economy. The most accurate of these forecasters for the first three quarters is Dean Maki, chief US economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York and a former economist at the Federal Reserve.

In his fourth quarter remarks Dean Maki sees:

• The US economy will expand 3.5 percent in 2010
• Personal Income will increase - Rising incomes will prompt Americans to do what they do best… consume
• Manufacturing will grow - Dwindling inventories and growing demand will create confidence that the expansion will be sustained
• Consumer Spending will increase - Household spending “will pick up steam as we move into the second half of 2010.”
• Unemployment will drop - “The overall picture for 2010 will be an economy growing rapidly enough to bring down the unemployment rate” to near 9.6 percent.
• Stock values will rise - “One area that we put more weight on perhaps than other is the stock market,” which has gained 67 percent (S&P 500) since a 12-year low on March 9 and is reflecting in family balance sheets and positing Americans for spending.

Other economists in the survey are more cautious:

Neal Soss, chief economist at Credit Suisse, the second most-accurate forecaster of GDP projects the economy will grow 3.3 percent next year.

John Lonski, chief economist at Moody’s Capital Markets Group sees a 2.7 percent expansion.

Robert MacIntosh, chief economist at Eaton Vance Management pegs an expansion of 3.5 percent and unemployment at 9.5 percent for 2010. “The combination of exports, investment and consumption will be enough to give us, on paper at lease, a decent-looking economy.”