A Look Back And Forward

It's New Year's and everyone is writing about the past year and hopes for 2008. Who am I to do any different?

First, let's look back on 2007, if only briefly:

The “Iraq War is lost” group in Congress have found that it just ain't so. This is the same group that thought the surge was a failure before it had even begun. And these are the folks that claim to have the backing of the American people, a mandate, despite evidence that the American people didn't so much as vote for them as against those they replaced. There is a difference.

And speaking of Congress, this one has to be the biggest do-nothing Congressional sessions in American history. That may not be a bad thing.

The “juicing” scandals in professional baseball and other sports have finally started having an effect, with pro athletes coming under the proverbial microscope in order to ensure their performance out on the field is due to their skill and ability, not modern chemistry.

The endless campaign for President started in full force just about a year ago. Many people I've talked to are already sick to death with the whole thing and have been tuning out a lot of the ads and rhetoric.

Locally, New Hampshire Democrat Party Chairman Ray Buckley claimed the state's civil union law was the most important piece of legislation dealt with by the New Hampshire House and Senate even though it affects a very small percentage of the population in the state. On the other hand the education funding crisis, which affects darn near everyone in New Hampshire, was ignored. Mr. Buckley has this one exactly backwards.

The housing market softened even further, with foreclosures going up, particularly on homes with sub-prime or adjustable rate mortgages. Fortunately it appears that banks learned their lesson from the housing crash back in the late 1980's/early 1990's and didn't get involved with sub-prime lending.

Global warming seemed to be in the headlines just about every day. Far too many people are calling it a crisis. These are the same people demanding that trillions be spent to deal with a problem that may not be of humankind's making, but rather part of a natural climatic cycle. While many of the “crisis callers” keep saying there is a consensus that humans are the cause of all climate change, far too many respected scientists are saying just the opposite. That doesn't signify a consensus to me.

Also on the global warming topic, New Hampshire had the snowiest December in 131 years. It was also one of the colder Decembers on record, too.

The New England Patriots closed out the regular NFL season with a perfect 16-0 record. If they can make it to the Super Bowl and win that, they would be 19-0.

And now let's take a brief look forward at 2008:

The Patriots will win the Super Bowl, as well as their first few games of the regular 2008 season, breaking their record of 21 consecutive wins over two seasons.

The Red Sox will not win the 2008 World Series, but they will be playing!

The housing market will continue its slump, but only for new homes. Existing home sales will stay neutral for the year.

The organizations fronting sub-prime mortgages will either go bankrupt or will turn to other investment vehicles. Foreclosures on homes will peak sometime late in the year and then start falling off.

Oil prices will continue to rise.

Winter 2008 will be seen as a more normal winter than the past few years, with colder temps and higher precipitation than we've seen in a while. This will be a continuing trend for the next few years. In relation to this, global warming will be blamed for above normal temperatures and precipitation, below normal temperatures and precipitation, and normal temperatures and precipitation.

And that's how I see it. Of course you should take any of my predictions with a grain of salt. They are neither more or less scientific than anyone else's.

Oh, I almost forgot: Happy New Year!