“Houston, we have a problem”  – James Lovell, Apollo 13 “Work the problem people, work the problem”  Gene Krause, Mission Control Apollo 13   Hurricane Harvey was a huge disaster.  More than 60 people lost their lives.  There is and will be hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and lost business.  My deepest sympathies […]

It was about 10 years ago that I started to write about electric cars in this space with this and this column.  It was clear to me then that, ultimately, they would become mainstream and become a significant percentage of cars driven in the developed countries of the world.  In early 2008, I forecast that 2010-2015 would be the dawn of the age of the electric car and of course it was.

The title of this column is an obvious lift from James Carville’s famous line about the 1992 election: “It’s the economy, stupid”.  That is probably the most quoted campaign statement from TV talking heads of all time, certainly since he uttered it 25 years ago.

In this past year [or two] of politics and elections, much has been made about what is going on with national elections.  The pundits have looked at what has happened largely through the lens of traditional political thinking.  The rise of populism and nationalism.  The global elite class leaving the eviscerated middle class and lower classes behind in the rush to embrace globalism.  Well, okay, that is certainly true to some degree.  But these lenses of traditional political thinking do not fully explain the realities of what has and is happening.

In recent weeks I have taken a look back on forecasts I have made in the past about Media, Technology, Energy and Climate Change.  This week I take a look back at some economic forecasts made, particularly those that are still very relevant. I am one of the few, if only futurists that posts the […]

There will be more change in the next 20 years than any 20-50 year period in history. In fact, future historians may well look back on this time as a historical transit as significant as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution or the Renaissance. It is hard to imagine any area of life that will […]

During the eleven plus years I have been writing this blog, the subject of energy, energy costs, and the transformation taking place in the area has been a frequent topic. Energy certainly affects the global economy. It also profoundly affects Climate Change. The major transformation under way from fossil fuels to alternative and renewable energy […]

Last week I took a look back at forecasts made here about media. This week we look back on forecasts made about technology. Again, as a futurist I post forecasts on my web site, what I forecast and when that forecast was made. February 2008 “We now have “smart” phones. In the years ahead everything […]

Starting with this column and for the next few weeks, I will revisit forecasts I have made over the last ten years. As far as I know, I am the only futurist who posts most of my forecasts – what I forecast and when I did so- on my web site.  All of the forecasts […]

In an earlier column in this space, I wrote about the dominant technology trends of 2017 and beyond. Today, I want to address what will be one of the most dominant technology trends in human history. Artificial intelligence is being mentioned everywhere in the media, as it is dramatically developing and being deployed everywhere in […]

  In some odd way I am an oil price geek. In 2006, when I was starting this blog and starting to speak full time about the future, I made a forecast that oil would get to $125 a barrel price in 2008. At the time it was trading around $70 a barrel, which was […]