Crystal ball predicts Trump supporters’ victory, more meatless meat and European decline
Predicting the future is best left to crystal ball gazers and over optimistic politicians. Neither is really responsible.
Most people enjoy thinking about what might and can happen so we searched online for a source of predictions well before year end. The Canadian predictions were mainly about weather, indicating climate is our main concern. We’ve picked some of the 59 predictions from Fortune Magazine to entertain our readers. Fortune, incidentally, predicted Trump’s election as U.S. president, his rulings on clean power and his switch to let undocumented “dreamers” live and work in that country.
The editors also predicted incorrectly that Trump’s election as president and the resulting uncertainty would end the eight year bull market in stocks.
For the coming year Fortune predicts Democrats in the U.S. will have the votes but miss out on recapturing the Senate and the House of Representatives because of gerrymandering of seat boundaries.
But a Supreme Court ruling on a gerrymandering (rigged vote boundaries) will declare the practice unconstitutional.
Other Supreme Court rulings will allow union members to opt out of mandatory dues and one ruling will require police to get a warrant before accessing information on a cellular phone.
Meatless meat, now only one per cent of U.S. sales, will grow as fast as soy and almond milk which make up three-quarters of the milk market.
About 22 million United States sports fans will cut their cable TV, up from 15 million this year.
Sales of all-electric cars will approach one million while Tesla will become involved in a flying car program.
Autonomous cars will make headlines for accidentally killing deer and pedestrians. A barrel of oil will cost $60 next Christmas as U.S. oil shale production increases keep a lid on the price. The fed funds rate, the interest rate the central bank charges other banks, will be over two per cent for the first time since the 2008 banking crash/crisis.
U.S. tax cuts won’t be able to give the economy the desired boost as costs of an aging population rise. Home prices will barely move.
All eyes will be on the Indian economy as the sub-continent grows at 7.5 per cent while China posts 6.5 per cent compared with 2.5 for the U.S.
A new Italian government coalition will see pressure to leave the European Union. The British coalition government will fall over a Brexit issue and a sex scandal. The European Union will continue battling online giant Google and create space for Microsoft’s Bling to get a foothold in the market.
May your New Year be happy, peaceful and prosperous!