Predictions for 2023
The following predictions are the results of economic modeling, machine learning, meaning-making from qualitative research, and when the chances are even -- coin flips. This repo has been archived, and the actual outcomes will be tracked here:
In 2023:
- Jack Dorsey returns as CEO of Twitter.
- The Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement that explains impromptu emergency interest rate hike.
- Google lays off 50% of its workforce.
- MacKenzie Scott and Laurene Powell Jobs fund a new digital equity initiative, run by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The "AOC Foundation" uses its billion-dollar endowment to help new ideas reach audiences more effectively.
- YouTube buys radio station to broadcast top influencers on AM/FM radios.
- National Public Radio (NPR) shuts down, after losing federal funding and underwriters.
- JP Morgan ($JPM) acquires Bank of America for about $5 per share.
- NYU Professor Jeff Jarvis joins faculty at either Oxford or Cambridge.
- Governors in western states deploy National Guard troops to quell armed skirmishes over water rights.
- Heavy dust storms accelerate the Phase 4 corrosion of power transmission steel lattice towers. Power outages and steel shortages follow.
- After winning Super Bowl LVII with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tom Brady retires to become an avocado farmer.
- Tom Brady announces the National Strategic Avocado Reserve.
- Elon Musk buys New York Times.
- Autobahn-like highway tested in Texas.
- Kara Swisher wins both the Peabody Award and Pulitzer Prize in the same year.
- NYU Professor Scott Galloway is named Time's Person of the Year.
- Maggie Haberman is appointed editor-in-chief of Washington Post.
- Warren Buffet retires.
- McDonald's ($MCD) is acquired by Asia-based private equity giant and is taken private. This gives time to restructure debt.
- Burger King ($QRS) is acquired by Europe-based private equity firm. The firm spins off the Whopper into its own burger shop, like Shake Shack or In-N-Out burger.
- Airbnb adds mixed-use retail space to rental inventory for pop-up stores.
- Microsoft introduces next-generation police force protection gear, featuring the HoloLens as a situation-aware mixed reality headset.
- Amazon starts vertical farming fresh produce in New York City and Paris.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger says "if you cut off one head, two more shall take its place" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time; the movie trailer alone shatters the all-time views record on YouTube.
- Climate change forces many states to pass new tornado and flood insurance laws.
- San Francisco Bay Area shut down by blizzard.