Jeremy Siegel vs. Harry Dent

Confused?

Jeremy Siegel, a noted Professor of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, says a Dow 15000 to even 17000 is a good possibility.  On the other hand, Harry Dent predicts a Dow 6000 down to even 3800 is a strong possibility.

Here are some past predictions by Harry Dent:  In 2000, based on his forecast that economic growth would continue throughout the 2000s, Dent predicted that the DOW would reach 40k, a prediction which was repeated in his 2004 book. In his book, he also predicted the NASDAQ would reach 13-20k. In late 2006 he revised his forecasts to much lower levels, estimating the Dow would reach 16-18k and the NASDAQ 3-4k. In January 2006, he predicted that the DOW would reach 14-15k by the end of the year. It ended 2006 at 12,463, 11% below the lower end of his prediction. It ended 2007 at 13,264, again significantly lower than Dent's revised prediction of 15,000 by early 2008.

Here is a past prediction by Jeremy Siegel:   He predicted that "the economy will avoid a recession" in 2008. His crystal ball also revealed that "the stock market will have another winning year in 2008" and that "financial stocks, which have plummeted 18 percent so far this year, will outperform the S&P 500 index next year [2008] as the credit crises fades."  The S&P 500 lost 38.49 percent in 2008, its worst year since 1937. Financials underperformed all market sectors, losing 56.95 percent.