My Predictions for 2008

The other day, my son asked me what my predictions for 2008 were. It thought this was kind of funny since he never asked me that before, and I have to admit I was caught off guard. But now that I'm sitting here, I thought I would give it a try. So here we go......my predictions for 2008 on January 6, 2008. I hope I don't make too much of a fool of myself:

1. The Sub-Prime/Alt-A/Prime Mortgage Problem will be twice as bad as it appears today. That is, the amount of bank, and financial institution write-offs globally will be double what it is today (around 100 Billion). To extend this prediction, I also predict that Europe and even the Middle East will experience their own Sub-Prime/Alt-A/Prime Mortgage crisis. They will not be as deep as the United States, but they will contribute to the problem.

2. Location Based Services will be the next Internet "killer app". The advent of usable, easy to understand location based services will take their place as the next wave in Internet development. The ones that rise to the top will be able to utilize the broadest array of phone handsets; and the winners in this space will exploit specific, singular niches abandoning the "everything portal" concept in use today on phone handsets.

3. This will be the election year that Independent Candidates take their place as equals to the two major parties in the political spectrum. The proliferation of the Internet and the ability to fund raise outside of the major parties will enable several candidates to run for President in the 2008 election that are not the nominee of the Republicans or the Democrats. This will create a much more significant split in the American psyche than Ross Perot could have ever imagined and will set the stage for an Independent win in 2012; if not 2008.....but I'm not going quite that far.

4. We will see the first death on live TV. Going out on a limb here, since I can't believe that reality TV has made it as far as it has in the first place. The velocity and the voracious nature of the genre dictates that this happen in order for it to continue as a viable category on television.

5. China will move from economic partner to economic aggressor, and the US/China trade stance will change forever. We will see China begin to utilize it's incredible global economic clout in a bold and egregious move against the United States economy. While I can not predict what this move will be, It will be counter to the US economic strategy enough to be seen as the first salvo in what can only be a long and difficult economic war.

Okay......I'm out of breath. That should be enough precitin' for now. Hopefully, this time next year if the stars stay in line and I remain healthy Ill review and see how I did.