2014 PREDICTIONS - THE YEAR OF THE GREAT WITHDRAWAL

By Lowell Ponte

2014 could change America forever in many ways. Here are my 2014 predictions:

1.  The Sun flipped its magnetic polarity in December 2013, an event some scientists have linked with the 22-year drought cycle in the U.S. Midwest. Do not be surprised if either worsening drought or severe flooding devastates America's croplands in 2014 sending food prices sharply higher.

2.  The U.S. stock market will sink by 15-20% before the end of 2014, tipping the U.S. back into a Recession.  This will happen despite new Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's continued commitment, the 'taper' notwithstanding, to print almost $1 trillion of stimulus money out of thin air each year, keep interest rates near zero, and use other monetary methods to prop up a fragile economy where real unemployment today is above 11%. After years of addiction and dependence on the drug of nearly-free stimulus money, the U.S. economy is about to suffer withdrawal symptoms - hence our book The Great Withdrawal.

3.  An unstable Asia will tremble as the weekend after January 31 begins the “Year of the Horse” in China's 12 year cycle of animal years. Horse years, according to Chinese astrology, are often associated with bad events: economic collapse and war. We may not believe in such portents, but the Chinese do and may make economic and military decisions accordingly.

4.  Facing November 2014 elections, Republican leaders will try to win on Obamacare's problems alone. They will go along with Democrats to depoliticize other matters, such as extending unemployment benefits and easing restrictions on immigration.”

5.  If GOP leaders alienate Tea Party conservatives, Republicans will fall at least 1-2 seats short of winning control of the Senate. The Year of the Horse might bring unexpected victory to the political party of the Jackass.

6.  President Obama would then use the government bureaucracy, regulatory fines, and executive orders to rule without Congress until he leaves office in 2017. The power to regulate, like the power to tax, is the power to destroy.

7.  Organized labor will continue to press for raising the minimum wage. The mainstream media will not report that most union contracts guarantee hourly increases for their workers whenever the prevailing or minimum wage goes up.

8.  Obamacare could cause up to 93 million Americans to lose their work-related health insurance before the end of 2014, which will devastate the consumer spending on which our economy depends.

9.  Israel will strike Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Israel might use its own atomic arsenal to do this, because President Obama has refused to provide our most sophisticated bunker buster bombs to Israel.

10.  A nuclear-armed Iran would consider using terrorists as its delivery system, instead of aircraft or missiles.

11.  This threat will prompt Saudi Arabia to build a nuclear arsenal that, if its monarchy is overthrown, could also end up in the hands of Islamist terrorists and be smuggled across America's porous southern border.

12.  Nukes in the hands of Islamist terrorists could destroy whole cities, potentially kill millions, and also devastate America's economy.

13.  Property values could fall sharply in New York City and Washington, D.C., two prime targets in the bulls-eye of atom-armed terrorists, as people flee for peace of mind and safety to small cities, towns, suburbs and exurbs.

14.  The faddish so-called 'cyber currency' bitcoin, driven by speculators to almost the value of an ounce of gold for a few hours in late 2013, will in 2014 collapse to a value of as little as $10. Gold could rise to more than $1,500 an ounce as the dollar and economy decline.