Though the New Year number features a "lucky" eleven, 2011 is unlikely to spin out as a white-hot winner, according to the candid Trends Journal publisher Gerald Celente. He forecasts a difficult year.
To begin, he predicts a big blow-up in the battle between America's haves and have-not's.
"People will do drastic, desperate things just to survive. They're losing their homes. Kids coming out of college have no jobs. And next year unemployment will get worse. But the Jamie Dimons and Lloyd Blankfeins of the world are raking in $144 billion worth of bonuses. You're going to see some violent things start happening," he says.
The 2011 youth rebellion "will be a 1960s replay," he says. In retaliation, a government crime crackdown will assume "everyone is a suspect until proven innocent," an outraged Celente adds.
That social theme will play out against the larger trend of America's "dumbing down at every level. We don't even win, place or show in education anymore. Virtually every quality-of-life level has [deteriorated]. Why? Because we became a bottom-line society," Celente argues. "Deregulation put so many small companies, who couldn't compete, out of business."
Celente continues: "Government acts were put in place to stop the robber barons from stealing everything. Now the robber barons are called Wal-Mart."
As for the United States economy, 2011 will bring "realization that the 'recovery' is just a cover-up. This is not a productive recovery; it's a spending recovery of money we don't have. Anybody who believes politicians or Wall Street bankers that there's recovery in sight and everything is fine had better grow up," he said. "They've been lied to before, and they're being lied to now."
