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2008: Trend Predictions Scorecard

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In December of 2007 I posted a predictions outlook for 2008 that was based upon trends analysis and NOT based upon “divine” revelation. The article was not based upon dreams or supernatural visions from God or angelic visitations.

Instead, the article was based upon trends that either began in 2007 or were continuations of longer running trends from preceding years. In many respects, trend analysis predictions are merely extensions of trend continuations. It’s not really rocket science per se, but it does require some abilities to observe and then project a given trend and perhaps anticipating certain cures or changes in trends, perhaps based upon additional information or prior history of a trend.

In other words, I’m not trying to blow my own horn in claiming to be a genius or know-it-all. I am at times a keen observer with an ability to see where a trend is leading after taking into account current potential variables. Some years, it seems I have an uncanny ability, other years, I may look like an idiot. One thing my yearly outlook articles cannot take into account are unforeseen and unknowable events, such as geological and meteorological events.

With these introductory remarks in mind, let’s examine my outlook projections for 2008 from a 2007 perspective.  See our 2008 trends-predictions article- LINK HERE.

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We’ll begin reviewing my December, 2007 prediction/projections with perhaps my most on-the-money projections concerning economic matters.

In regards to the world and U.S. economy, I started my assessment with the following headline:

A World Economic Meltdown in  2008?  

I began my projections by citing statements by leading economists and monetary experts as well as my own prior experiences with some key Illuminists who in the 1980s gave me a general heads-up on future plans of the oligarchs in the New World Order crowd. Then I stated the following:

I am not stating nor predicting that an economic collapse will occur in 2008, but it is a possibility but it won’t be by accident although it will appear to be either accidental to some or to most, a bungling of policies.

IF, the economic structure collapses in 2008 – it means we’re on the verge of the establishment of a Global Government.

IF a collapse transpires, the NWO crowd will begin forcing dramatic new changes in the way the world operates. They will only do so if they believe that they can get away with instituting these changes.  

It may be that they will take this crisis to the brink and if there is resistance, they may pull back and temporarily ‘bandage’ the situation and simply treat it as a recession, as they have done in the past. IF this happens, they’ll bide their time yet again for the next opportunity, which will most likely develop again in the next two to four years. They want things running and the NWO in place and functioning before December 21, 2012, which is their date for the dawning of the New Age of Ages.

  
You should note that I did NOT absolutely predict an economic crash. I did project that we would see a financial crisis. I note that this is a manipulated event and those in charge would decide whether to crash the system or pull it back from the brink for awhile. It still remains unclear as to whether or not we’ve had a total crash of the system.

It appears the world’s economy may be in a slow-motion crash that is still developing, but at a slow pace rather than as an “instant” crash.

It can be stated however that the banking system is in meltdown mode and the investment world is in similar meltdown mode also. Even so, this meltdown mode has not triggered a sudden calamity where millions of people are starving and food is scarce as some people had predicted.

My point here is that my December 31, 2007 article projected a massive economic dislocation – and that we have certainly now experienced. The extent of this economic dislocation is perhaps debatable at the moment as is any assertion as to what will transpire in 2009 on the economic scene, but that’s for a separate article for projections in 2009.

All in all, for scorecard purposes: We scored a success in this major prediction.

Predictions about the USA in 2008

USA, Iran & Iraq

If you’ll recall in December of 2007, Americans were very concerned about the continuing bloody war in Iraq. The “Surge” was still an unknown quantity at that point. Iran appeared to be playing games with us in Iraq, by manipulating and controlling many of the insurgents. There was still talk of Bush ordering pre-emptive military action against Iran for either its interference in Iraq or for its nuclear weapons program. Here is part of our outlook assessment:

For all practical purposes, Bush and Rice have boxed themselves into a corner in regards to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. They may not be able to extricate themselves out of that position and into a position to do anything against Iran.  After all, the reason for an attempt to compromise with Iran was because the alternative – a military confrontation – would produce enormously negative effects in the substantial loss of US forces in Iraq and perhaps among the US Fifth Fleet. Also, it might results in a direct confrontation with both Russia and China, especially after the NIE report of December 3, 2007.  

We projected that the Bush administration would retain its diplomatic efforts to reign in Iran’s nuclear program and that it would fail. We note that because Bush and Rice boxed themselves into a corner regarding Iran’s nuclear program they may not be able to extricate themselves – and indeed they did not. 2008 saw the Bush Administration trapped and unable to act militarily against Iran because the US forces in Iraq and the Middle East were vulnerable to severe consequences of an Iranian counter-attack.

Bush’s primary goal was to chart a course of extricating US forces from Iraq, with the exception of some units being permanently based in Iraq as protection against any Iranian encroachment. In order to achieve that goal of removing US forces, the Iraqi insurgency would have to come to a halt. Since Iran was a primary instigator and supporter of the insurgents, the Bush administration worked out a secret arrangement with Iran. Iran would shut down the insurgency support and assist in removing the insurgency problem so as to give the US a reason to leave Iraq. In return for Iranian cooperation, the US promised not to take pre-emptive military action against Iran’s Revolutionary Guards training bases or Iranian nuclear facilities.

In addition, the White House agreed to keep Israel from launching pre-emptive military strikes against Iran for the rest of Bush’s term of office. The Bush team made it clear that Bush had no power to force his successor to abide by such terms concerning the restraint of Israel.

This secret agreement between Iran and the White House was predicated on Iran not precipitating a crisis such as starting a war with Israel and or testing a nuclear weapon or sponsoring a major terror attack on the order of another 9-11. In other words, Iran would have to ‘behave’ and be a good little nation and not provoke the USA to wrath.

Our projection for relations between Iran and the US were somewhat murky and very much conditional, but again if the trends and agreements held, then the projection was for no military conflict between Iran and the US or Israel. That projection has held in 2008. However, 2009 is another story for our 2009 Outlook.

Another projection we made concerned the influence of Vice President Cheney. We projected that his influence would continue to wane and become a non-factor in 2008 unless of course, there was a terror attack or Iran didn’t abide by the secret agreements.
In fact, Cheney virtually disappeared for the most part in 2008. Oh, he made some obligatory trips to the Mideast, but his advice and influence was gone.

We also projected that the likelihood of a terror strike by Al Qaeda against the US in the continental United States was a very low probability. We wouldn’t rule it out, but it didn’t seem to be likely.

So our scorecard here on these three predictions is a success although these were contingent projections and not absolute predictions. Still, our trend analysis remained on target. So we score these as 3 more successes giving us a total of 4 for 4.

On Russia in 2008

In regards to Russia for 2008 – we noted:

Look for Russia to be an antagonist to US foreign policies in the Middle East in 2008. Russia will likely try to expand on its new trend to establish some level of diplomatic influence and project military power into the region, most likely through a new naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, along the coastlines of Syria and Lebanon. Look for Russia to also flex its economic muscle as an “Energy” leader as it works to bring more natural gas to the world markets of Asia, Europe and Africa.  

Russia went much further than our trend analysis suggested, by invading Georgia, but other than that, our trend analysis for Russia was pretty much ‘on target.’ We did indicate that Russia would try to expand its power and influence, particularly into the Middle East and it has done so with both Syria and Lebanon. We noted that Russia would likely project a new naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, which is did after taking up Syria’s offer to host Russian naval bases in Syria ports like Tarsus. Russia also is flexing its energy muscle. Last winter it interrupted natural gas pipelines to Europe and on New Year’s eve of 2008, it threatened again to cut off the Ukraine from natural gas.

Of course, while Russia remains an energy leader, energy prices have spiked and now dropped to severely low levels that threaten Russia’s economy. Still, our trend analysis has been accurate. So score another successful trend-prediction for our 2008 forecast.

Japan in 2008

We projected that Japan would continue to secretly develop its own nuclear weapons program. Because it is a secret program, we’ve had no way to confirm our projection nor to rate it as an error. In other words, the jury is still out on this projection.

On Turkey in 2008

We projected:

This is due in part to the new Islamic fundamentalists gaining greater control over the Turkish government and changing foreign policy. Look for this trend to continue to negatively impact on Israel in 2008. 

In 2008, Turkey did find new advances by Islamic fundamentalists taking charge. Turkey’s actions have had some negative impact on Israel. In this regard we scored some success in this prediction.

RE: Presidential Elections:

On Jan 1, 2008 we stated:

Because of the smoke-n-mirrors string-pulling, it’s hard to know if Hillary is on the outs with her puppet-masters or not. IF, she is out of favor and no longer their choice, then we might just see a GOP candidate like Romney or Giuliani win out. I’m not inclined to think Barak Obama is their choice at this time. My suspicion is that they’ll hold him in reserve and that this year is a ‘training’ year for him.  I wouldn’t rule out Mike Huckabee either because of his rising from the Arkansas political system under Illuminist controls.  No matter which candidate emerges and moves into the White House, it’s the Illuminists who actually win.

We must admit we missed the Obama selection although even before he won anything we noted that he was the likely ‘’atlernate candidate of choice should Hillary self destruct which she did. Otherwise we noted that 2008 was the year for Democrats retaking the White House, which they did.

All in all, our trend analysis predictions were fairly on target, of course, we didn’t go way out on any limbs for any particular subject but our trends that remained trending turned out to be fairly accurate. Our most, on-target predictions concerned the economy and the financial investment markets and another one that many thought might be disproved was our prediction that Bush would not launch pre-emptive attacks on Iran or that he would allow Israel to launch pre-emptive attacks against Iran.

So what do we think about the trends for 2009?

You’ll need to read our upcoming article on 2009 Trend’s Ahead for 2009.

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