The Forecast: US shale oil and gas production will continue to lead the petroleum industry, but engineers and investors will closely watch delivery rates and decline curves. Elsewhere, new processes will add value to coal, but won’t solve its essential problem: It’s inherently dirty. The nuclear-power industry will reintroduce itself across the world through safer, cleaner fuels and reactors. And...

Despite an economic downturn, US petroleum produers that have long-term gas-supply contracts with gas-burning public utilities or gas-export ventures will gain market share. Oil and gas producers that entered the shale play late or with limited drill sites will close down or be bought by more nimble operators with strong balance sheets and a catalog of prospective sites that turn...

The Forecast: The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the big one. But Takeover is a trend line years in the making; it’s now fully embedded in the social, economic and political spheres that rule our lives. It drills deeper than the massive consolidations we see in banking, media, health care, retail, etc., on broad national and international scales. Look at your own...

The greater the consolidation of businesses, the fewer the choices of products, services and job opportunities. With the pressure of losing market share diminished by shrinking competition, companies will focus more on growing the bottom line and spend less on research, development and creativity. The gaps can be filled by on-trend entrepreneurs.

The Forecast: While large-scale marketers and retailers will continue to capitalize on the need to look back by producing classic rock T-shirts and retro-looking radios for certain segments of the boomer-plus population, they’re missing enormous opportunity to push retrograde quality among younger generations. Mass-produced merchandise is the sugar coating; quality and genuineness, lovingly crafted from the heart, is the ticket....

This generation, growing up with terror and oppressed by economic stagnation, is positioned to move beyond creating and living within comfort zones. As we stated in our winter forecast: “For the movers and shakers among them, the distant past holds more promise than today and tomorrow.” Millennials are advancing their connection to “a whole food, back-to-the-land, voluntary simplicity, buy local,...

The Forecast: In 2015, a more progressive and robust attempt to service the aging population with a new generation of products and services will emerge. They will cover a wide range, including: drawing more boomers and seniors to dynamic small and medium-size cities, where creative activities abound within walking distance; natural-health products that enhance overall quality of life; fitness programs...

Expect to see savvy entrepreneurs focus on several wide-open targets: » Creating longevity centers that emphasize practices, services and approaches to aging that bring mind, spirit and physical health into a single focus. » Whole-health healers, who develop anti-fad fitness and nutrition programs to emphasize holistic-health approaches, will enjoy success. » Community gathering places — from bars and restaurants to...

The Forecast:  Two major geopolitical trend lines will be drawn in 2015: Support more wars or fight for peace. What course will be taken? Which will prove successful? What countries will wage more war? Which countries will wage peace? Will fighting for peace be seen as heroic? Or will joining forces with politicians, the military and defense experts to fight more wars continue...

Leading contenders in America’s Presidential Reality Show are avowed bomb-kill-degrade-and-destroy war hawks who promise to be tougher than Obama on foreign policy and escalate the never-ending War on Terror. The global implications of more war are not only costly regarding mass destruction and lives and money lost. The destabilization throughout Africa — and wars waged by the US and its coalition...