I like crystal balls and all of that hocus pocus. It takes one back to youth, to days at the carnival, with weird people doing fantastic things, like predicting economic collapse, my obsession:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/futurist-who-predicted-911-and-the-gfc-says-there-will-be-a-global-crash-by-the-end-of-next-year/news-story/1cbfb302a172303db20ab62fe6251ac6
“Chillingly, within the next three years, a popular world leader will be assassinated using autonomous drone technology, sparking an international outcry. Those are just some of the predictions of futurist Dr Richard Hames — who correctly foresaw 9/11 and the GFC, two of the biggest world events of the past two decades — but they’re not his “craziest”. “My craziest prediction is that within the decade we’re going to see almost a revolutionary change in how we think about politics, social enterprise and the economy,” Dr Hames said, citing climate change and the widening gap between rich and poor as key catalysts. “Governments will seriously consider how they can put a cap on personal wealth, thus challenging the capitalist framework. We will shift our thinking away from growth at all costs to how humanity thrives without growth and even negative growth. Economists will say that’s impossible, but it isn’t if you look at more things than just the economy.” To promote his tour of the country, Dr Hames has come out with a number of headline-grabbing pronouncements — including that a second financial crisis is just around the corner. “Since the global financial crisis none of the structural dynamics have changed, in fact I think they’re getting worse,” Dr Hames said. “There is going to be a global crash by the end of next year.” On President Trump’s 2020 prospects, he argues that “a lot of his base is actually falling away but in a number of ways the economy is going better in the US than anyone expected”. “The Democrats are in disarray, that’s a big part of it,” he said. “They’re fighting each other. I’m saying with almost 100 per cent certainty that he’s going to get back in.”
An economic crash by next year? Sure, many economics experts are going to disagree and tell us that capitalism is immortal, but, hell, we are not, and it would be wise to stock up on the odd tin of baked beans, “just in case”:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3431344-just-in-case