Cheers! Your Predictions For 2009.

You ask difficult questions for early new years day (here), rjb! Particularly No 3! How would I know?

Just dropping by to wish you a happy new year!

Please continue now, everyone .......

Happy New Year, msolga. Did you/are you planning to stay up to midnight? I won't.

I feel asleep at around 11:30 last night (new years eve), rjb.
An action-packed night in Oz!
Actually, it was a peaceful, very enjoyable evening.

I predict our new President will not start a stupid war over imaginary WMDs. This same President will not embarrass his country by making up silly words and using them in public.

Our new Vice President will not have to post bail for his mother in law or throw a baby shower for his unmarried, pregnant teenage daughter.

I predict the EPA & DEP will stop modeling themselves on the ethics of China and start to enforce existing laws that they have been encouraged to ignore for the last 8 years.

I predict that corporations will actually start to think about their customers instead of just their stockholders. I predict that auto executives private jets will go the way of the Hummer.

I predict that Americans will poorer but better citizens of the world.


Happy New Year Everyone!

1) I've no idea about the DOW.
2) I've never paid attention to employment rate, it mostly has not had to do with me over decades.
3) Tell me again the teams that are playing? (only 1/2 kidding)
4) 4 justices
5) no idea
6) yes
7) same as this year
8) no idea
9) 42

Predictions - by late 2009 we will be more mired in Afghanistan.
The economy will be in worse shape than it is now, though the basis for improvement may be in place by then.
There will be new emphasis on smart ecology/energy production but not yet in gear.
Health care will still be a mess, perhaps on the way to not being so.
Rahm may be gone.
Since we will still be funding a war system, getting expenditures going for fixing infrastructure in the u.s. will still lag while being accoladed by words, but even words will be a sort of progress.

That, osso, is probably true. Folks think 2008 was bad. Wait until 2009. Job losses are going to accelerate and underemployment, folks having their hours cut (which kind of slips under the radar), will worsen. Consumer spending will weaken for the year and housing values will continue to decline as part of the spiral.
2010? We might recover, but only after the government has printed a few trillion dollars in new money. Then we could see some pretty hefty inflation.

Some of us have gone through tough financial times ourselves. Others of us had parents or grandparents who went through the Depression of the 1930's.
Too many folks, I am afraid, have not. As long as there was room on the credit card, or a new one came in the mail, we were fat and happy. That is not sustainable.

Did you know, osso (my architect/urban planning etc buddy), that the U.S. has twice as much retail space per capita than any other country in the world?

rjb, I see little but dark clouds for the most of us, but may '09 agree with you and yours...

Hi RJB - do you attach any rewards to getting any of the questions right?

Ha! Of course not. No rewards. Feel free to add to the list of questions inviting predictions. I am really weak in my knowledge of pop culture.

1) The Dow finished at 8776, down 34% for the year. Where will it finish at the end of 2009? 12,299
2) What will be the unemployment rate be at the end of end of 2009? 5.7%
3) Who will win the NFL Superbowl a month from now? Carolina Panthers
4) How many Supreme Court justices will retire in 2009? One
5) What will be best film of 2008, according to the Oscars? "Milk" because of Prop 8. Should be "In Bruges"
6) Will A2K get back the PM feature Yes

Other predictions:

1) Benjamin Netanyahu will be the next Israeli PM, and Israel will launch a prememptory strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The world will decry the attack in public, but breath a sigh of relief in private.

2) Andrew Cuomo will fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat

3) Roland Burris will fill Obama's seat

4) The Minnesota senate race will end up in court and Coleman will win

5) The Freedom of Choice Act will not become law.

6) Employee Free Choice Act will not become law

7) There will be a $999 billion stimulus package

8) Putin's Mother Russia will engage in additional militaristic mischief in central asia.

9) There will be a signifigant crackdown on dissidents in China

10) Harry Reid will retire

11) Chrysler will merge with GM

12) Mugabe will die

13) There will be a minor military conflict between Columbia and Venezuela

14) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will remain married but be on the edge of divorce

15) The NY Yankees will win the World Series

16) The NY Rangers will win the Stanley Cup

17) The Boston Celtics will repeat

18) Michael Phelps will be involved in a much publicized scandal

19) There will be an unusually virulent flu virus in the US that will lead to media scare hype.

20) Black music will begin a new mode that will promise to supplant Rap

21) Eddie Van Halen will die

22) Clint Eastwood will die

23) Peter O'Toole will die

24) Roland Burris will die

25) Ted Kennedy will die

26) Medical Marijuana will flourish in California and expand to other states

27) There will be a major terrorist attack in Washington (the state)

28) Glabal Warming fever will cool down and eco-nuts will feel betrayed by Obama

29) A major heath care initiative will be enacted into US law

30) China will not devalue its currency

31) The world will do nothing about Darfur

32) Gordon Brown will have high approval ratings in the UK

33) Sarkozy and his wife will split

34) The Taliban will, effectively, be wiped out in Afghanistan

35) "Watchmen" will be the blockbuster hit of the year

36) The first actual step towards artificial life will be taken

37) Congress will cut NASA's budget

38) There will be a major earthquake in California

39) There will be three major hurricanes - one will decimate New Orleans

40) Dogs will run free (so why can't we?)

41) A prescription weight reduction pill will hit the market

42) Martha Stewart will die

44) Michelle Obama will get pissed of about press coverage of her daughters

45) Cat Stevens will make a pop music comeback

46) Larry King will have triple bypass surgery

47) Jennifer Aniston will get pregnant

48) We will learn that Kim Jong Il has been dead for the past four years - his brother-in-law will be the new "Wonderful Leader"

49) A New York Times front-page story will report that a panel of psychological “experts” has found that opposition to gay marriage is a mental illness. - (Origin 0n this one - Jonah Goldberg)

50) Joe Biden will say something embarrassing and/or wholly inappropriate.
(Origin on this one - Mark Hemingway)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I predict Obama will be a disaster on many fronts, but it won't matter, the press will declare him a complete success. The economy will sputter along and be a little better by the end of next year, not because of any policies but instead by sheer momentum, even though that momentum is weak. The stock market will not return to its high anytime soon, probably not in Obama's 4 year term, unless the rich libs get to feelin giddy and create another huge bubble. Unemployment rate may be nearing its top, unless more bad stuff comes down the pike that we don't expect, which could happen, hows that for hedging bets? The deficits will soar. Supreme Court Justices, bad news, I don't know how many but any is too many, the appointments will be disasters. Films, I don't care, not interested. Oh, energy policy, absolutely nothing gets done to fix the problem, except some cosmetic feel good things that will accomplish little to nothing.

I forgot, Happy New Year! And by the way, the people that actually make this country work, they will still be around, and so things could be worse! There is always room for optimism.

#1. 7894
#2. 5.4%
#3. Giants, much as it pains me.
#4. 2.
#5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
#6. No, and don't presume I have too much insider knowledge on this. I just think Rob and Nick will get too busy.

1) The Dow finished at 8776, down 34% for the year. Where will it finish at the end of 2009?
Flirting with 10,000
2) What will be the unemployment rate be at the end of end of 2009?
6%
3) Who will win the NFL Superbowl a month from now?
I don't want to pick the Giants. They don't seem to have what it takes, except, the other teams don't appear so strong either. ?
4) How many Supreme Court justices will retire in 2009?
None
5) What will be best film of 2008, according to the Oscars?
Benjamin Button
6) Will A2K get back the PM feature
doubt it

I predict that it will be quite cold at the beginning of 2009, then it will warm up gradually until it reaches a maximum warmth and then it will begin to cool down right until the end of the year.

Tell that to our Aussie friends, f-man.
Played scrabble yesterday with a lady from Perth. 103 degrees there.

Now come on y'all... I predict Bi-Polar Bear will be raped by South Parks Evil Woodland Critters