“Here’s the thing about the future. Every time you look at, it changes — because you looked at it — and that changes everything else.” — Cris Johnson, Next (2007) The new year has already thrown me two curve balls with unexpected illness (nothing major it seems) and a massive Stanford Rose Bowl thrashing of Iowa (I was looking for a 34-24 victory by my — and Carly Fiorina’s — Cardinal). But while the first of those has delayed an annual tradition for me here at Forbes with this post, I cannot easily be derailed. Before I unveil the 2016 edition of the Crystal Ball (TM), however, I remind readers that I like to tout my successes and thrash my failures from the year before. Last year’s predictions ran here and were dissected a few days ago here . Heisman favorite again? While I didn’t foresee Christian McCaffrey’s record-setting season, he won’t be sneaking up on anyone in 2016 after running all over Iowa in the Rose Bowl. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) For me the value in this tradition is to try to take a broad look at what’s coming using the lens of what just happened for better focus. No one really saw Trump leading the Republican field at this point, just weeks away from Iowa but likely fewer people would have gone on record as saying Jeb! would be nearly finished before a single vote was cast. Few predicted France would become the flashpoint for terrorism realities with the Charlie Hebdo attacks occurring just days into 2015 and the November attacks centered around the Bataclan theatre bracketing the year.
Credit for the latter attack was claimed by the terror group ISIS, which became the story of the year in many ways. It dominates much of the […]
