Bad Economy A Boon For Psychics

If you could see into the future, you could make a lot of money.

Then again, even if you just claim you can see the future, you can still make a lot of money, as CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports.

Most people will tell you…it's impossible to predict market swings.President Obama has said in press conferences that he doesn't have a crystal ball.

Neither does Anne Bradshaw. But she believes she can tell the future. And so does New York investor Steven Herman who's looking for Bradshaw's advice on a business deal.

"I wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole," Bradshaw told him.

Bradshaw doesn't read business documents. She feels them and senses their energy.

"Business, I almost want to apologize, is excellent," she said.

She says people are paying a fortune to be told their fortunes. One businessman got a particularly prescient prediction about a major bank.

"I told him that WaMu was going down, so close I could feel it, and I believe it went down the next day," Bradshaw said.

She charges $350 for an individual reading. Up to $10,000 a month for corporations. And she says she has more business than she can handle, including two Fortune 500 executives - but she can't say which ones.

Psychics across the country are reporting their business is booming.

"I don't think you should be so surprised," said Gita Johar, who teaches consumer behavior at Columbia University. "Superstitions might seem absurd to us, but it's just one more way of feeling like you're able to control your destiny."

They've been reading the tealeaves at Boston's Tremont Tearoom since the great depression. People used to come in to ask about romance. Now, says manager Alex Palermo, it's less about love, and nearly all about money.

The questions Palermo says he's hearing: "Will I get a job? Will I keep my job? Will my unemployment run out before I find a job?"

And business, he says is up 25 percent from last year.

"We kind of rested quietly for 74 years and now we're being called back into action. Kind of like the psychic version of the National Guard. It's, like, call them in!" Palermo said.

So psychics are answering the call, mostly predicting bad times.

But not always.

Asked about this company, Bradshaw predicted, "CBS is going to do very well."

And since scams and bailouts and bankruptcies are the new normal, how abnormal is it to seek comfort in the paranormal?