Pessimists may get reason to smile in 2005

FINANCIAL pessimists of the world, don’t give up.A popular forecasting view says you won’t have to put up with the market’s revival much longer - perhaps through mid to late 2004.

Beyond that, there's lots of room for gloom.

By 2005, in this script, the economy and the markets stand an excellent chance of bogging down once more in a morass of bad feeling about inflation or deflation - not to mention the slumping dollar, trade imbalances, and the US government budget.