Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual.

A charlatan (also called swindler or mountebank) is a person practising quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretense or deception.

"We really can't forecast all that well, and yet we pretend that we can, but we really can't."

That last one is courtesy of Alan Greenspan, and it comes from John Mauldin's recent Thoughts from the Frontline, entitled Economicus Terra Incognita.

Actually, I'm going to spend the first few pages demonstrating that the mathematical models used to forecast GDP and all sorts of interesting economic events are basically nonsense.