Predictions for 2009

January 1, 2009 by Gene Veith

Here we go again with our annual predictions for the new year. What do you think will happen in 2009? See yesterday’s post for how it went last year. Some of those predictions were of bigger trends that may, in fact, be taking place. Others were highly specific and were either definitely right or definitely wrong. Both kinds of predictions are fair game. Consider developments in religion, culture, politics, economics, the arts–all of the topics we talk about on this blog. (I hope FW and Larry, the winners of last year, will weigh in with some more of their amazingly accurate prognostications.)

January 1, 2009

Good news is coming!

January 1, 2009 Happy Name-of-Jesus Day!

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Bob Hunter

1. The year will have 365 days.
2. There will be four seasons this year.
3. Gas prices will rise.
4. Gene Edward Veith will still be doing his blog.
5. Someone will predict the end of the world.
6. Barack Obama will become conservative and join the Republican Party.

I think I’ll have most of them correct.
Larry

Yikes! The only way to go from here is down. Well, I make no claim to be either a prophet or a son of a prophet. So please don’t stone me if I miss the mark. In fact, I hope that I am wrong on most of these. Nevertheless, here is my stab at predictions for the USA…IF THE LORD TARRIES!

In his first year, President Obama will remove all restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research; he will also sign the Freedom of Choice Act. The Republican party either will turn away from the neoconservativism that has dismantled the Reagan coalition and return to principled, limited-government, constitutional convictions; or it will remain clueless and shuffle off into the dustbin of history. Popular entertainment will continue to sink into pornography. Advocates of atheism and immorality — including, but not limited to support for “gay marriage” — will become increasingly aggressive and more explicitly anti-Christian. Christians (like King Ahaz in Isaiah 7) will face increasing pressure *either* to turn to the world and its resources for protection from and success in the world *or* to turn from the world to trust in the Lord and his means of grace. Some will go one way while others will go the other, so that we will see both apostasy and revival at the same time.

Finally, believing Lutherans and believing Calvinists will repent of their respective sins and shortcomings and join forces in a third way that retains the strengths and leaves behind the weaknesses of each — oh wait! that’s if the Lord does not tarry!
Kirk

The world will end because we elected Obama.
Booklover

I will not swim the English Channel with Kate Smith strapped to my back.
EGK

1. There will be wars and rumours of wars

2. There will be earthquakes in diverse places

3. People will faint in fear at the roaring of the sea and its waves.

4. This world will continue to be a “vale of tears.”

4. Christians will continue to “look up,” for they know that their redemption is drawing near!
Peter Leavitt

The recession should bottom out toward the end of the year.

Obama, despite the rhetoric and decent cabinet choices, will to reveal his lack of a solid inner decision-making core.

With the world recession, Russia and China will reveal the serious weakness of their totalitarian regimes.

The Patriots will get Tom Brady back and win the next Super Bowl.
Kirk

@6

I like your thinking on the 4th point. My question: what happens to Matt Cassel?
Cindy Ramos

In college football, Texas will once again defeat Oklahoma. They will also beat Texas Tech and everyone else on their schedule, putting them in the BCS title game. (I won’t predict the outcome of that game, since it won’t be played until 2010.) Colt McCoy will win the Heisman.
Cindy Ramos

The digital TV transition will not go well. After a post-February 17 outcry, the AARP lobby will force Congress to bring back the analog signal, until such time as President Obama can inspire a new volunteer corps of tech-savvy youth to visit every home in America that needs help with the conversion. Free of charge, the kids will deliver and install converter boxes, rescuing people who can’t tell a 300 OHM transformer from a 75 OHM balun (see this hilarious two-minute video).
Jeff Samelson

OK — here are five for 2009:

1. Investors with cash on hand and enough nerve to buy into stocks in the first two months of 2009 will see double-digit (percentage) increases in their investments by the end of the year (but not across the board) (perhaps even 20% or more). The overall economy will lag behind the market.

2. Groups of Lutheran pastors and concerned laymen in the US will gather together and lament the sad state of things in the church and say, “Something’s got to be done. Things can’t get any worse.”
Things will get worse. Nothing will be done, other than perhaps the formation of one or more new groups dedicated to lamenting the sad state of things in the church.

3. Republicans and others who opposed Obama for reasons other than racism will experience a certain kind of schadenfreude when he and his administration fumble and struggle to adapt to the first domestic and foreign crises or challenges that are not solved by asserting, “But we’re different! I’m not George Bush!” — and groups that gave him unquestioned support in the election start asking for considerations he’s unwilling to give.

That schadenfreude will dissipate quickly when they realize that Obama’s problems are America’s problems are their problems.

4. Russia will continue its slide back toward Soviet-era politics and military posturing, without the pretense of communism. Its neighbors will become increasingly nervous, and the West will become increasingly distant from those neighbors.

5. China will find itself militarizing more on its western and southern borders, as Islamic unrest in South and Central Asia begins to make them more and more nervous.
Eric M

Here are a few more:

1 – Obama will become a pragmatist as he learns the limitations of the presidential power. This will cause him trouble with the far left. Most of his election promises will go unfulfilled. (OK – so that one is not much of a stretch)

2 – As we are already seeing, the press will change its tune about the economy and the overall situation in the US. This will boost consumer confidence and the economic down turn will become a recovery by mid-summer.

3 – Global warming will become a thing of the past as reality begins to set in – colder temperatures overall and lack of money to implement the changes environmentalists want.

4 – No major terrorist attack will occur on US soil which will set the stage for a relaxing of many of the “security” measures put in place by President Bush. This will be a good thing overall. As the wars in Iraq and Afganistan wind down, the terrorists will have more freedom of movement leading to major events in 2010.

Eric
FW

#11 erik

hello! where were you during the election. Obama IS a pragmatist with a capital P. but he is also deeply reflective.

he will govern as a traditional liberal democrat along the lines of LBJ and roosevelt. not saying that is a good thing” and he will try to govern by consensus and be mindful that 47% voted for the “other guy”.

he WILL talk up a more liberal talk than the walk he will actually walk in an attempt to move the center of public discourse more to his way of thinking, which is not always neatly a liberal vs conservative dichotomy…

but his governing principle is that no branch of government should move too far out from the general public consensus.
FW

the economy will continue to flounder. for most of obamas first term (if he will even get a second term…).

just ONE example that the press is not talkin about really….

since the local and state tax base is sales tax and property tax mostly, there will be massive layoffs and cutbacks. we have not even started THIS wave of the crisis yet… the combined budgets state and local dwarf the federal budget. and the states and cities can not just print more money.

this will result in more federally concentrated government of course. buh bye federalism forever!!

and then after that….. our society has become heavily “creditized”. people get rich off of passive investments and interest. the original purpose of the stock market was to provide capital for industries that MAKE THINGS, ie produce true tangible wealth. this purpose has been subverted, and cash and carry is no more.

returning to cash and carry as an economy would be very very painful. there is probably not enough political will to do this, but it is clear that consumers will have no choice for the next several years yes? how long will it take for this to sort out with depressed home prices and the corresponding loss of assets and equity base for ordinary americans? this is yet another wave that is still working itself out past the mortgage crisis…..

so…. it will be a few years….. who cares what the press says? and it is in the interest of wall street and the government to suppress as much negative real information as possible and be optimistic….
FW

umm. shouldn´t Larry and me get a tshirt or coffee mug or somn? just saying…..