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TOP TREND: MID-YEAR UPDATE
2016 FORECAST: Take a trip around the world.
If you live outside one of those cities of wealth, take a walk around the block.
What do you see?
On the global scene, from Canada to Chile, Venezuela to Russia, Nigeria to Norway and South Africa to China, countries large and small and rich and poor — all bountiful with exportable raw materials — are in economic decline as commodity prices hit new lows, and supply for what they sell far outstrips demand.
In down-and-out cities, towns and villages around the world, while the causes of economic decline vary, the sights and scenes are similar: decaying cities, abandoned malls, empty factories, rotted infrastructure, declining living standards, a shrinking middle class, a widening gap between rich and poor, growing poverty, legions of homeless and floods of migrants desperate for better lives filling the streets.
The global recession we had forecast, for many nations, will devolve into depression. How long will the downturn last? Which nations will suffer the most? Which will thrive? It depends on who seizes new opportunities to grow and prosper, and which ones hold onto the past and attempt to rebuild failed systems and outdated structures.
IT’S ANCIENT HISTORY
Trends are born, they grow, mature, reach old age and die. Two dying megatrends that dominated life on Earth and whose time have come and gone are industrialization and globalization.
The great globalization trend has peaked. Nations that devote their energies to lift the human spirit of their citizens will design and build self-sustaining economies by manufacturing products they need and growing the food they eat.
TREND UPDATE
The evidence is clear: Self-Sustainability is a strong, powerful and growing trend. The June 23 Brexit, in which British citizens voted to exit the European Union, and trade and financial sanctions imposed and recently renewed on Russia by the US and European Union, are but two examples of manmade actions forcing nations to design and develop long-term self-sustainability plans, objectives and goals.
However, whether nations are forced into growing their own economies as a result of socioeconomic, technological or geopolitical forces that reshape their destiny, or by the earthly forces of Mother Nature, those nations with the human talent, adequate natural resources and a make-it-on-their-own mentality will thrive and survive in the New Age of Self-Sustainability.
In the United Kingdom and Russia, for example, Ontrendpreneurs™ producing high-standard “Made in England with Pride” and “From Russia with Love” products and services will not only build strong, loyal customer bases by buying and trading among themselves, the money spent and made will stay and be re-invested at home, rather than being shipped abroad to multinational providers of goods and services. TJ