Some people believe that everything in life is cyclical.  Understanding the cycles that govern our life, so they hold, enables us to predict the future with great accuracy.  We debunk this myth in our article on cycles.

Some people study trends in the hope that they are a reliable guide to the future.  As we show in the article “Are trends friends” trends can be very misleading, especially if used uncritically.  Oddly, sometimes the most reliable trends are ignored by decision makers – as we illustrate in the case of the local car manufacturers.

Demographic change, in particular the boom in the population aged over 55 is another much ignored but reliable trend.  We have an in depth article on the economic power of the 55 to 64 demographic, evidence that the marketing profession is ignoring this information, and options for marketing to 55 to 64’s.

Another important demographic trend is the reversal of the decline in fertility.  While not yet another baby boom, this trend could combine with the imminent increase in the number of retirees to increase the dependency ratio of the population.

The July 2001 issue of Wired magazine asserted that in the future, electricity will no longer flow in one direction only.  There will be embedded generation capability based on solar cells, wind farms, and fuel cells.  The vision included households becoming partially self-sufficient.  Is this an idea whose time has come?  We investigate in the next issue of Prophets Profit.

Australia and the USA are the two developed countries which have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.  Leaders of both countries have cited economic costs as one of the reasons for their recalcitrance.  No doubt it is a coincidence that both countries have suffered economic and human cost from a large number of severe storms recently.  While these particular storms can’t be attributed to global warming, and ratifying Kyoto would not have prevented them, they are a sign of things to come if these major greenhouse gas polluters do not act with more urgency.  In the next issue of Prophets Profit we review the most recent temperature trends and look at what has to be achieved to avoid catastrophe.