2011 Fearless Forecasts

Florida, but not Jacksonville, will take a direct hit from a category 3 or higher hurricane.


A major earthquake (6.0 or higher) will rattle a major city on the West Coast.

The Tea Party will strongly influence the Jacksonville city council and mayoral elections. Rick Mullaney will not be our next mayor.

Sarah Palin will decide not to run for President.

Inflation will be above 5% by year-end, primarily due to higher food and gas prices. Gas will be $5/gallon or more.

A second round of foreclosures will cause further declines in the real estate market. Commercial real estate defaults will bring another banking crisis, although not as severe as the last one.

The stock market will decline during the first three quarters but rise slowly in the fourth quarter back to 11,500.

War will break out on the Korean peninsula. China will intervene to stop it.

Israel will take matters into her own hands and strike at Iran’s nuclear production facilities. Obama will be furious at Israel.

Terrorists will hit a train or subway in the U.S.

Osama bin Laden will be captured, thanks to a Special Ops. Unit.

A tornado will hit Godfrey, Brighton or Jerseyville in Illinois.

Hilary Clinton will resign as Secretary of State.

A dormant volcano will roar to life in Europe or Russia.

An earthquake in Afghanistan will kill and injure some U.S. troops, but the subsequent rush to bring aid to locals will help solidify U.S.-Afghan relations with local leaders.

Flooding from Spring runoff in western Colorado or Utah will take out a portion of the old D&RGW rail-line between Denver and Salt Lake City.

Unemployment will stay stubbornly above 9%.

President Obama will announce he will not run in 2012 due to revelations of the Chicago-style corruption throughout his inner circle. Indictments will be expected, if not delivered, by year-end.

Rahm Immanuel, Obama’s former chief-of-staff, will not be elected Mayor of Chicago.

A major art museum will suffer a truly stunning and audacious art heist.

Although Obamacare will not be repealed, Congressional Republicans will be successful in defunding major provisions. Federal courts will continue to hand down mixed decisions on its constitutionality. Eventually, the Supreme Court will declare the mandatory purchase of health insurance unconstitutional but not in 2011.

The news media will be abuzz with the “state nullification” movement as a way of reining in federal power.

Goodbye, America

America, as we know it, ended late Friday night, February 13, 2009. When the Senate passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, it plunged the knife up to the hilt into the heart of American capitalism. For all intents and purposes, our financial system and economy have been nationalized.

When President Barack Obama signs this so-called stimulus package into law on Tuesday in Denver, America will become officially a socialist or, more accurately, a fascist nation. Even if businesses remain in private ownership, the federal government will control their operations. In many cases, the government itself will take over majority ownership.

Of course, it is no surprise. Socialists and communists have mentored Obama since his teens. Nor can he bear total blame for this end of American capitalism and financial freedom. We have been on this road for a long time, since President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Republicans, too, share blame. Never in my wildest dreams [or nightmares] would I have believed that a Republican President, George W. Bush, would nationalize the banks like he did by signing the first “stimulus” package that was rushed through Congress last Fall.

All sides acknowledge, now, that package did not work. Did Congress learn from that hasty mistake? Obviously, it did not. Most Democrats and a few Republicans stubbornly believe, despite all historical evidence to the contrary, that it is possible to spend our way out of recession. They often cite the example of FDR’s New Deal, forgetting that World War II, not the New Deal, lifted this country out of the Great Depression.

Analysis of this legislation has just begun. The Act, which spends $787 billion, is 1,071 pages long. Legislators had only fifteen hours to digest it before the vote. It is safe to say not one single Congressman or Senator read this bill before voting on it. They would have to have read 71 pages per hour or just over one page per minute, without any breaks during those fifteen hours. Previously, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised they would have at least 48 hours between release of the bill’s text and the vote being taken. And, it was only released in printed form. Normally, bills are published digitally, which allows Congressional staffers to do computer keyword searches to evaluate the worthiness of any piece of legislation.

The devil will be in the details. Supporters claim this act will create 3.5 million new jobs. Most economists put the number lower, at 2.5 million. But, let’s give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt and go with the 3.5 million number. That means it will cost $224,857 in government spending for each one of those jobs. Let me say that again so its truth can sink in: every single new job created by this stimulus act will cost taxpayers $224,857!

The press, both left and right, is finding all kinds of funky features buried in this bill. Some are silly, like the millions to save some endangered mouse in Speaker Pelosi’s district. Although maddening, voters should not let themselves be diverted by these trifles. This bill is too dangerous at the macro-level for us to be consumed by such micro-details.

The most alarming fact about this stimulus act is how much it raises the statutory limit on the national debt. It allows the national debt to increase from its current limit of $789 billion to $12.1 trillion. Think about it. We have never had a national debt over $1 trillion, yet the Democrats and three “Republicrats”voted for our nation’s credit line to go to a mind-boggling $12.1 trillion.

So far, the media has barely noticed this all-important detail. Yet, it is perhaps the most dangerous provision. What does it mean to allow such an increase in our national debt limit? It tells us just how much spending the Democrats are planning to do. This $787 billion must be just a down payment.

If the Democrats under Obama pass the kind of spending a $12.1 trillion national debt limit allows, it means hyperinflation. Even the U.S. with its sterling international credit rating cannot borrow that kind of money. There simply is not that much investment money in the entire world to support that kind of spending. And, some international bankers are expected to lower our nation’s bond ratings. That means higher interest rates on what we are able to borrow. If we cannot borrow the money to support our spending at reasonable rates, the government has one other option and that is to print money. It monetarizes the debt, lowering the value of the dollar so that high value dollars borrowed are repaid with lower value dollars.

This is what President Carter did in the early eighties when we had the worst recession since the Great Depression. We had double-digit inflation in a stagnant economy. If we come even close to a $12.1 trillion debt, we will have triple-digit inflation. We will be like the Germans during the Weimar Republic before Hitler. Then, it took a wheelbarrow of cash to buy a loaf of bread. That is what Americans will soon face unless the Democrats are held in check, and I am not at all optimistic that we can or will do that.

President James Madison warned, "If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within." The Socialists have taken possession of the land. Goodbye, America.