As usual this time of year, numerous articles appear predicting economic, social, and geo-political trends for the year at hand and beyond. Charles Hugh Smith writing at peakprosperity.com in an article titled The Trends to Watch In 2013 has set forth eight items that resonated with us. In examining the site we came across articles with information or conclusions that we would have basic disagreements with so in no way are we endorsing every claim made on the site. But these eight prognostications seem well congealed from information consistent with what we conservatives have been reading (whether or not Smith considers himself one). The article (link here) contains information to justify each trend analysis. Some we dread, some we welcome. Recommended reading. R Mall
Excerpts:
Though the specific timelines of crises are inherently unpredictable, it is still useful to understand the eventual consequences of influential trends.
In other words: policies that appear to have been successful for the past four years may continue to appear successful for a year or two longer. But that very success comes at a steep, and as yet unpaid, price in suppressed systemic risk, cost, and consequence.
Trend #1: Central Planning intervention in stock and bond markets will continue, despite diminishing returns on Central State/Bank intervention
Trend #2: The omnipotence of the Federal Reserve will suffer a fatal erosion of confidence as recession voids Fed policy and pronouncements of “recovery”
Trend #3: The Mainstream Media (MSM) will continue to lose credibility as it parrots Central Planners’ perception management
Trend #4: The failure of what is effectively the “State religion,” Keynesianism, will leave policy makers in the Central State and Bank bereft of policy alternatives
Trend #5: Economic Stagnation will fuel the rise of Permanent Adolescence
Trend #6: Income is the foundation of real economic growth and wealth-distribution stability
Trend #7: Small business—the engine of growth—will continue to decline for structural reasons
Trend #8: Territorial disputes will continue to be invoked to distract domestic audiences from domestic instability and inequality
