LONDON — Deep gloom is predicted for 2009, with talk of deflation, shrinking economies and rising unemployment. Economists point to the huge drop in Japanese output, zero growth in Europe, dwindling world trade, collapsing financial institutions and the threat of worse to come.

Before everyone catches the gloom bug, here are a few counter-predictions that things in 2009 may not turn out so badly as the experts are telling us:

* First, almost all economists are almost always wrong in their forecasts.