New Year's Predictions

My prognostication skills, beyond being adequate for NFL football, are notoriously flawed. Even my ability to predict election winners in the past has now faltered. With that in mind below are a list of predictions for 2009 - some tongue-in-cheek, some hopefully optimistic and some completely dispassionate and serious. I'll leave it to you to ferret out which is which.

1. The recession will continue throughout the year - unemployment will rise to 8.8%.


2. The credit crisis will continue and as a result the economy (as measured by GDP) will continue to contract throughout the year by 0.3%.


3. The price of oil, despite production cuts by OPEC will remain low - around $35 per barrel.


4. Obama's approval rating will remain above 62% for the entire year, but will drop from the current levels.


5. The Big 3 bailout will proceed as if nobody cares or is paying attention.


6. Norm Coleman will retain his Senate seat.


7. The Back Street Boys will be #1 again.


8. Gov. Blagojevich will name some names and a couple of others will be indited. If the names are high enough up the food chain, a special election may be 'imposed' on Illinois voters.


9. Captain Jack Sparrow will be named as the next CEO of Fannie Mae.


10. The Steelers will make it to the Superbowl (gulp).

That's probably enough rope to hang myself 10 times over. Maybe I should throw out there a few crazier ones for the sake of interest. If you've got any, feel free to post them in the comments section, comments are always most welcome - provided they aren't crude or racist wtc.

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!