The first six months of 2009 will prove to be very hard times, almost as bad as the Great Depression with major job losses. But as soon as the economy hits rock bottom and there is a general consensus among billionaires that the economy has bottomed out, they will jump in and infuse the world economy with huge investments. Buy low sell high. They are simply waiting for the bottom before jumping in and making their fortunes larger. Unfortunately for the rest of us this will simply mean we’ll be working for the man a little longer.
Before the year 2020 researches at a major Ivy League university will discover a way to translate the sounds that dolphins make into English. Hours after this discovery it’s discovered that Dolphins are in fact at least as intelligent as humans and have simply chosen to live a life without government and technology. Law are quickly passed around the world that make it an act of murder to kill a dolphin. Dolphins are also instrumental in answering many of the oceans mysteries through the telling of Dolphin folklore.
Due to increasing civil unrest brought on by the crumbling economy the U.S. Government will request that Americans turn in their guns in 2010. This will lead to increased civil unrest as gun owners defend their right to bear arms which will eventually lead to the bans on certain weapons nationwide and increased restrictions on gun ownership. The ground work is already being laid in a new bill. H.R. 6257: Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008. Here’s a quote of the Bill’s summary:
H.R. 6257: Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008
6/12/2008–Introduced.
Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008 - Amends the federal criminal code to reinstate, for 10 years, the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act’s assault weapons ban to prohibit the manufacture, transfer, or possession of a semiautomatic assault weapon or a large capacity ammunition feeding device. Specifies models and features of banned weapons.
Sets forth exceptions to such ban, including: (1) firearms or devices lawfully possessed under federal law on the date of enactment of this Act; (2) certain firearms, replicas, or duplicates listed in an appendix as they were manufactured on October 1, 1993; (3) any firearm that is manually operated by bolt, pump, lever, or slide action and that has been rendered permanently inoperable or that is an antique firearm; (4) any semiautomatic rifle that cannot accept a detachable magazine that holds more than five rounds of ammunition; (5) any semiautomatic shotgun that cannot hold more than five rounds in a fixed or detachable magazine; and (6) firearms manufactured for, transferred to, or possessed by a federal, state, or local government agency or for law enforcement.
Requires the serial number of any weapon or device manufactured after enactment of this Act to clearly show the date of manufacture.
Directs the Attorney General to study and report to Congress on the effects of this Act on violent and drug trafficking crime.
If this bill passes and civil unrest escalates causing real conflicts between law enforcement and civilians the next steps will logically be to strip Americans of the Second Ammendment to protect the peace and homeland security. Our right to bear arms is in danger.
Most reputable sources are predicting that we areheaded for extremely hard times. Job losses, continued real estate devaluations, and escalating national debt are all expected. As this situation worsens and more people are put on the street violence will begin to erupt in hard hit regions.
The U.S. Government is preparing a force of 20,000 uniformed troops inside U.S. by 2011. They will be trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe. This is no lie and it is not being taken seriously enough by most Americans.
Battle hardened soldiers retrained to keep the peace does not exactly sound like a safe situation to me. It sounds like a very dangerous combination especially with domestic gun sales on the rise.
Here is just a sample of news on this issue:
The current collapsing economies around the world will lead to more of the ultra rich moving their money into safe low yield investments. This risk avoidance will pull the rug out from under many middle market corporations causing wide spread economic collapse and job loss. Giant corporations, mom & pop businesses, and certain favored middle market companies, like discount retails and grocery outlets, will survive.
On December 21, 2012 the world as we know it will come to an end. This isn’t my prediction but a general belief by a growing number of people. Armageddon, and also referred to as TEOTWAWKI which is pronounced Tee-ought-walk-ee, does not necessarily mean that all human life will come to an end. It simply means that civilizations around the globe will collapse. Billions of people will be lost and yet humanity will prevail due to our resourcefulness.
The cataclysmic event could be any number of things from nuclear war to a giant meteor to the reversing of the magnetic poles. For a fairly complete discussion of the possible dooms day events see this wikipedia article: Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth. Also watch this video by Stephen Petranek at the well respected TED conference. Petranek, the former editor-in-chief of Discover magazine, doesn’t put a timeline on TEOTWAWKI. The date proposed here is of course the end of the Mayan Calendar. Here is Petranek’s talk, 10 WAYS THE WORLD COULD END.
Prediction: If the economy doesn’t snap back in December 2008 we’ll be in trouble for two more years
Some leading economists, like Jim Paulsen, are pointing out that the economy is not in that bad of shape and that only the housing and auto industries are badly hit. The numbers show that exports are up and many large corporations have large reserves of cash and are simply waiting for the economy to bottom out before they start taking advantage of the situation. Buy low… or better yet… buy at the lowest.
But the real problem is that the two areas hit by this pseudo recession have hit many of us in the gut and it’s caused a very serious reaction… maybe even an overreaction. The trouble with predicting the future of the economy in that this situation is that it’s never been seen before. The housing market bubbles have popped in America’s most expensive markets causing much of the middle class to reevaluate their spending and values.
Why December 2008? The holiday shopping season often illustrates the tone of consumer confidence. If the economy doesn’t bounce back in December large corporations will most likely buckle down and hold their money in reserve to weather the storm. We may even begin to see larger job layoffs which will trigger even more trouble in the housing, auto, and credit markets. We already seen major problems in luxury retail areas but if this continues that trend will continue into other areas.
Recovery from increasing job losses, foreclosures, and reduced spending will take time to fix. People will need to feel secure again in their jobs and houses before they’ll begin spending again and I suspect two years is a conservative number for people to get back on their emotional feet. So cross your fingers for us to have a great December and prepare to buckle down if we don’t.