CYBERWORLD-TV

2006 marks the beginning of the end of the major TV networks’ monopoly. After a decade of promises, the fantasies of a cyberworld of entertainment are ready to debut.

New advances in technology, such as those available from TiVo, which can connect the Internet to TV, will soon be used to deliver a world wide web of news, entertainment and information to the wide screen.

CATEGORY 5 ECONOMY

In 2006, America will take a direct hit from a Category 5 economic storm that’s been brewing on the global financial markets and steadily gaining strength.

Around the world and across the nation, the warning signs are clear. Neither Washington nor Main Street, each weighed down with record debt loads, will escape the onslaught of high fuel prices, increasing inflation, slow growth and a deflating real estate bubble ….

SIMPLICITY HIP/FUNKY COOL

America will be going on a long-term downsizing trend. Big cars, big houses and big extravagances will be a thing of the past for Mr. and Mrs. Average American family of four, three, two and one.

With the economy on a down trend, and 80 percent of workers suffering four years of wage erosion, in this new age of global competition, with its growing scarcity of good jobs, "less" will be "more" for Simplicity Hip Americans.

From food to fashion, high tech to low, the "in crowd" will be seeking quality products that reflect personal styles and are simple, reliable, and can be repaired – not trashed – when broken ….

WORKERS OF THE WORLD

A newly formed American labor movement, born from the breakup of the fading AFL-CIO, will reinvigorate union power in 2006, as workers from the nation’s lowest economic strata strive to thrive.

The newly formed "Change to Win Federation" has pledged to spend millions to organize the 50 million Americans whose jobs cannot be shipped overseas or replaced.

Unlike skilled high wage -earning union members who can jeopardize their comfortable lives when struck companies replace them or go belly up … the new federation members, many of whom live in poverty or barely make a living wage, have little to lose and not much to risk ….

SENTIMENTAL JOURNEYS

Americans want the great escape … but don’t know where to find it. Hollywood has lost its magic, the music scene is deafeningly boring, TV programming is mostly stupid, and the fashion plate has little sizzle.

As they watch their lives slip by, aging boomers, trapped in a rat race and working madly to make ends meet, wax nostalgic for times from their youth, which seemed so much more fulfilling.

It’s not only the boomers that see a rose-colored past. America’s Millennium Generation, born between 1980 and 1995, are also looking back to find the cutting edge to escape the here and now.

Having no contemporary messengers, today’s teens and twenties ironically share role models, dreams and hopes that mirror the memories of their parents and grandparents … not their own ….

HOMETOWN ECONOMY

As fuel prices rise, the economy declines, and more people are forced to work more jobs and/or longer hours just to get by, time-stretched, cash-scrimping consumers will cut costs and save time by shopping closer to home.

Paying a few pennies more to a local merchant will be weighed against whether it is worth fighting traffic, taking the time, and using the gas to drive to a big box store to save a few cents.

Beyond the cost savings, whether driving to a restaurant chain or shopping until you drop, there is good news for the merchants of downtown and hometown America. A growing cross-generational tide is swelling against the "big box" corporate giants.

In addition, if the dreaded bird flu or other pandemic hits the US, more people will choose to stay local and flee congested cities rather than risk any health dangers associated with being in large crowds ….

SUSTAINABLE LIVING

One of the hottest trends we see is the rapidly growing desire of more people to be self empowered, non-reliant, and "off the grid." This is no back-to-the-land hippie movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It’s less of a social statement and more of an economic, survival and lifestyle necessity that many will choose in these high-risk times of terror, pandemics and a compromised food supply.

The empowering part of technology, which didn’t exist back then – from computers, broadband, alternative energy, water purification systems to reliable food sources – as well as the motivation for taking charge … are here and now ….

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

After a twenty five year hiatus, the survival business will grow again as a new generation of fearful Americans takes steps and makes plans for what to do in case of a terror attack (natural or man-made) or ... an economic Armageddon.

Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, mad cow disease, bird flu, and terrorism: As the list gets bigger, people’s fear grows deeper – that when disaster strikes, they’re on their own. It wasn’t always like this. Following 9/11, a presidential photo-op at "ground zero" and military missions to capture "evil doers" (dead or alive) were enough to make a panicked population believe their government was on the job and could protect them. But now, a growing minority of Americans hear and understand the wake up call ….

UGLIER AMERICANS

From Europe to Latin America – around the world and across the globe – America has gone from being the most admired nation on Earth to the most despised.

Already in the international dog house for pushing around her superpower weight by starting the Iraq War, abrogating treaties, and threatening all those who won’t play by her rules, when Hurricane Katrina struck, friend and foe saw an ugly side of the USA they never knew existed ....

ENVIRO-CARE

After decades of declining government attention and being a backburner issue for the SUV-driven McMansion public, Americans, young and old, will turn brighter shades of green in 2006.

Unable to hide from the mountains of data and the physical consequences of global warming, food safety, pesticides, pandemics, plagues, spills, and toxins – environmental movements, initiatives, legislation, products, services, etc., will be in the news and on the minds of people who want to save the environment – so they can save themselves ....

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY MOVEMENT

It’s taken more than thirty years after the first energy crisis for it to happen, but now, with steadily rising fuel prices and oil companies raking in their highest on-record profits, the necessity for alternative and economic fuels (not only clean air) will be the mother of new energy inventions.

While there will be steady advancements in wind, water, solar, fuel cells, geothermal and other energy producing sources, we forecast that the greatest earth changing and climate friendly developments will be found in breakthrough technologies that explore true new sources of energy. The most dramatic among them, and those with the greatest speculative investment and IPO opportunities, may be found in research and development in hydrino power, cold fusion, zero point energy, charged clusters and permanent magnets ....