“Never make predictions, especially about the future.”
Casey Stengel

One of the worst things you can do is to predict the future. Your predictions will almost always be wrong and you will look like a fool. Looking back – you have no idea how you couldn’t even predict the simplest of things.

Regardless, here are the predictions of Financial Jesus for 2009.

1. The dollar will fall 20% or more against the Chinese yuan.
2. The price of gold will be up 10% by the end of the year, as uncertain investors will be looking to gold for support.
3. The price of oil will stay between 40 and 60 dollars for the most of the year and will rise to as high as 75 dollars per barrel by the end of 2009.
4. The Dow Jones Industrial Average will be up about 15%. If you correlate this with the falling dollar it will actually mean that those investing in the US will actually lose money.
5. The world economy will not recover from the financial crisis by the end of 2009. We will see the making of an economic crisis that has its roots in the credit crunch of 2008.
6. There will not be any more major bank failures. The governments of the world will not let that happen. We will possibly see governments taking proactive steps to save banks and other major companies before they are in actual trouble.
7. None of the three big US auto companies will fail in 2009. They will get enough help to just “hang in there” for a year or possible more – only then will we see a failure among the big three.
8. The housing market does not bounce back. We will see falling prices throughout next year.
9. Inflation in the US rises. Fears of deflation are largely without grounds and are only fueled by the falling real estate prices. Oil and gas will be on the rise and will therefore help to fuel the inflation.
10. Obama’s stimulus package passes in his first months in office but it fails to address the real problems. This is sadly realized only toward the end of 2009.
11. More bailout money will be needed by large companies. The government can’t deny their help because “everyone will already expect them to help”.
12. US economy will not come out of recession.
13. There will be an assassination attempt on Barack Obama. If you won’t hear about it, it is because it will be kept secret. (Yes, I just made sure that at least 1 prediction will become true)
14. Apple will launch a smaller version of the iPhone. Let’s call it the iPhone nano.
15. Financial Jesus will end the year with more than 1000 subscribers.

“My predictions are notably inaccurate.”
Robert Caro

“I figure lots of predictions is best. People will forget the ones I get wrong and marvel over the rest.”
Alan Cox

What are your predictions for the coming year? Let us know in the comments so we can find the best fortune teller when we sum things up in the end of 2009!