[Note to readers:  I am deep in writing a trilogy of eBooks with a tight deadline.  So I have decided to bring back some columns from the past, that many recent new subscribers might not have seen.  Since I am a futurist, I am called upon to make forecasts.  My firm commitment is to be […]

As a futurist I am always asked about what might happen in the future, usually about some specific category of interest to the questioner. This interminable presidential election has been no exception. “Who do you think will win?” was, until recently when the outcome seems to be clear, a frequent question. I have answered that […]

 [This column first appeared in the Shift Age Newsletter #36 ] Ever since the end of the Great Recession a few years ago, there has been much written about the lack of both economic growth and inflation. Much of this coverage mentions that the post-recession recovery is much slower than the recovery of past recessions […]

We are entering the second great stage of the global economy. The last column here looked back at the foundations of the global economy up to and through the reorganizational recession of 2007-2011. We now look at what has happened in the years since and begin the look into what the next stage might look […]

[This column was first published in the Shift Age Newsletter #27] Eight years ago I first began to write and speak about the future full time.  Then, as always, I was asked about what accurate forecasts I had made.  This told me of course that my legitimacy to some degree would be based upon this.  […]

Thomas Jefferson and Banks Thomas Jefferson was one of the greatest Presidents of the United States. He helped shape the ideal of a citizen’s democracy for America.  He was a visionary and evidently a futurist.  Here is what he said in 1802 about banking institutions: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our […]

As a futurist, part of what I do is to present the future to audiences and readers around the world.  Presenting a vision of the future, making predictions and developing forecasts is what a futurist does. Regular readers of this column know that since last September I have presented you with a number of economic […]

The Great Recession of 2008-2010/11 is going to be a very tough time economically.  As I wrote in my Forecast for 2009, this economic collapse brings four words to mind. The first word is contraction, which is the standard way to view a recession.  Economic activity contracts and we are in a recession, economic expansion […]

The current media and advertising recession will be more severe and more transformative than any one of the last 80 years.  This will be a time when it won’t be just about how far down ad spending goes, but also about what media entities and even business sectors will survive. Historically, advertising recessions have been […]

It is interesting that central to the U.S. view of the global economy is the inauguration of President Obama and the passage of a historic stimulus package by Congress.  Given that the world is awash in economic fear the potential for hope and a sense of direction has been hard to find.  Since the current […]