ChinaMerica

America owned the 20th century, but it won't own the 21st. While no power on Earth is emerging to rival the superpower's former status, China will weigh in as the world's economic heavyweight as well as a major military contender long before the end of the century.

As China booms and thrives and the US declines and weakens, the former Cold War enemies are exchanging roles on how to govern and how to run an economy.

China is becoming more American, and America is becoming more Chinese.
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Plantation Economy

Working longer, commuting farther and sinking deeper into a financial hole, America's middle class is shrinking, the rich are getting super rich … and the wealthy can afford to buy entire countries. It will only get worse. America is drowning in debt, mired in war and losing business to competition it didn't have before.

Manufacturing has been shipped overseas, and the replacement "service economy" worker has gone deeper into debt to pay the bills. Stocking shelves at Wal-Mart, floor walking at Home Depot or stuck in a cubicle job with no way out, the working majority are climbing down the ladder of success.
... For the rest of the story, read the Trends Journal.

The Internet Candidate

The opening salvos of the 2008 US Presidential Campaign will be fired over the Internet. Previously restricted by financial costs reserved only for the super rich and/or anointed party members, the low cost of an Internet entry run for President will become the 21st century leveler … permitting a newcomer who's beholden to no one … to now be able to reach everyone.

While the Internet has been on the scene for the last three presidential races, its universal embracement has now made it the entertainment and information source of choice for Global Age citizens. With half the web users attracted to social networking sites, the MySpace and Facebook crowds prefer the Internet's YouTube over the Networks' book tube.
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Old School is Cool

Not thrilled with the present and pessimistic about the future, Americans young and old, rich and poor - all colors, classes and creeds -- are looking to the past to find superior values and higher quality than what they're getting today. From popular culture to political choices … in food, fashion and design … in virtually every sector and all walks of life, there's a yearning for what was.

The nation hears from music legends and big screen stars of times gone by with complaints of how bad the music sounds and how banal the movies are. According to a June 2006 Roper Poll, 66 percent of Americans see the 1950s, 60s and 70s as better than today. A Pew Research Center Poll shows over half of adults believing that their children's future will be worse than the present times.
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Systemic Recession

The US is sliding into a long-term economic downturn. Weighed down with massive loads of debt and locked into jobs that limit opportunities to pay it off, the paycheck to paycheck public will feel the pinch in their pocketbooks and businesses will be hit hard in their bottom lines long before recession becomes "official."
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Medical Tourism

One constant in good times and bad is personal health, and how to preserve it. Like executives and entrepreneurs that scour the earth to find the best countries to do the best deals for the best price, today's consumers are globetrotting to find the best prices for the best medical treatments.
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Re-United States

The Red vs. Blue Wars have subsided, with no evidence from the election of 2006 of a great divide. From Congress to local races, former "Red" states went "Blue" in a general vote of no-confidence by a fed up public that wanted "change."

With few fresh ideas of their own, and focused on the big 2008 presidential prize, the Democrats will make decisions that will do little to polarize the electorate, while using their power to expose Republican missteps, violations and misdeeds of the past six years. Absent a major terror strike or an economic, man-made or natural disaster … the next two years will serve to heal many of the nation's open wounds of fractionalism that have deepened over the past six.
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American Beauty

After several years of getting the global cold shoulder, the world is starting to again warm up to the USA. Following the US midterm elections, defeat of the Republican Party was reported by the world press as a hopeful sign that a White House without a Congressional majority to support its war efforts would soften its hard line rhetoric and put away its big stick.

Although the US gets low scores for the way it acts on the World Stage, America is still seen by nationals of rapidly developing nations as the land of opportunity. With the cooling down of tensions underway, advertising/marketing themes that accentuate the finer elements of the American way, while respecting the norms and mores of the hosting country, will help sell products.
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TechnoTribalism

The tribes of the world are uniting. Tied together by the arteries of the information superhighway, citizens of common dreams and common causes are forming human bonds that transcend national borders, religious beliefs and political ideologies. Still in its youth and growing with unbound vitality, the exploding Internet is unleashing powers to the people that will change the way the world is run … and who will run it.

Bigger than blogs and more influential than the social networks, TechnoTribes will rally masses with calls for action when rights are violated, lives threatened and/or change is needed. Distrusting of politicians and critical of their leadership skills, the egalitarian tribes will unite those who share civic interests, follow moral codes and believe in universal truths.
... For the rest of the story, read the Trends Journal.