Looking ahead to 2018 Rural Ramblings
It’s time to beat myself up again as a predictor. Was I right, hopelessly wrong or somewhere down the middle? If I’m right, I’m open to offers for high paying prediction roles.
The economy is better than I thought it would be but not as good as it could be. Interest rates have risen. More, I think, because central bankers want them to rise than fundamentals pushing it along. Banks have been banks and ever will be. I did expect to see more of a correction in the stock market, but it seems the Trump effect is still holding. For 2018, I would not be surprised for the market to correct downwards in a substantial way. Too many companies are over priced in my opinion.
Every column has some Trump in it. I don’t see that changing in 2018. I am concerned that a shooting war may break out with or over North Korea. I would not be surprised if President Trump didn’t see out his full presidency, be it, the Russia affair, losing control of the house in the mid-terms and becoming a lame duck or just plain old getting sick and not being able to do the job. Whether that will play out to a conclusion over 2018 I’m not sure. It could.
Trade and currency wars didn’t really materialise over 2017. I still feel they could in 2018. The relationship between the U.S., Russia and China is not great and could get worse, especially over North Korea. I’ll be relieved if the Winter Olympics in South Korea pass off without incident.
I don’t really expect much of a boost for oil and gas prices either. I have little faith in the ability of OPEC to manipulate the market anymore. Hopefully, for the thousands of people employed in Alberta and beyond in the patch, prices will hold to viable levels. However, energy change is coming.
The Brexit process goes on, now that money is on the table. Isn’t that always the way? The French and Netherlands elections didn’t serve up the shocks that they could have but Germany had a kind of a sting in the tale. I think Angela Merkel went for one term too many and, at the time of writing, is still struggling to form a government.
I think I called it right on climate change, for whatever reason, it’s still happening. I still think it’s too late to stop it and that 2018 will be more of the same and worse. Locally, I’m worried about wildfires fueled by the devastation of the mountain pine beetle. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.
There will be more terrorist attacks in 2018. That’s not so much a prediction now. I fear it’s a sad fact. Syria, I feel, I hope, is going through the end phases of a horrible war. What will arise out the ashes is likely to be more of the same back when it all started. So much death with more to come. Is it ever worth it?
I’m going to go way out on a limb here. Aliens. Are they here? Are they coming? Are they nice or nasty? I would not be surprised to see breaking news on this sometime over 2018.
Now you’ve read about some of the doom and gloom that we might expect, happy New Year everybody.