  Packing peanuts, as defined by Wikipedia, is a common loose-fill packaging
and cushioning material that helps prevent damage to fragile items. In this
paper, I propose that synthetic data, akin to packing peanuts, can serve as a
valuable asset for economic prediction models, enhancing their performance and
robustness when integrated with real data. This hybrid approach proves
particularly beneficial in scenarios where data is either missing or limited in
availability. Through the utilization of Affinity credit card spending and
Womply small business datasets, this study demonstrates the substantial
performance improvements achieved by employing a hybrid data approach,
surpassing the capabilities of traditional economic modeling techniques.
