Kurmudkin's 5 Predictions for 2014

It's been a fast paced end to 2013 in Washington with a long term budget deal and the beginning of the end of Quantitative Easing. Let's make some predictions on what will become of the items that we touch on regularly. Who knows, I may come to be the next clairvoyant!

1. American Care Act/ObamaCare - The Administration Predicted about 3 million people would sign up through the exchanges by the December 15th, December 23rd, December 24th Deadline. And they appear to be well on track of a million short of that goal, and the grand total by the end of the open enrollment period was expected to be 9 million enrolled by the end of open enrollment in March. Regardless of the 5 million plus people who lost their insurance as a result of the ACA. Prediction: Total enrollment including State exchanges will be around 7 million, leaving a very modest 2 million people more covered in 2014 then in 2013, dropping the uninsured percentage in America from 15% to 14.3%. Making it glaringly obvious that this was all worth it.

2. Midterm Elections - Despite more grandstanding over the ACA and Debt Ceiling, some level of spin will permeate the population and help avoid any significant losses for the Democrats. The old tried and true method of creating a national narrative painting Republicans as obstructionists and beating the drum of wage inequality will result in only a few seats gained in the Senate, the caucus will be split 50-50, giving Biden the tipping power to leave the senate in a Democrat Majority. The House will net very little change and still be held with a large Republican Majority.

3. The Economy - One of the very few good things about the budget agreement coming out of congress this past month is a degree of certainty, and since the fed has agreed to continue to spend like a drunken sailor for a least a little while longer, I think this frustratingly slow economy will resume the coarse it;s on. 3.5% GDP growth on the year, Unemployment will get down to a 6.1%, the Dow will break 17000, maybe even kiss 18000 at some point for a short while. Google stock will get to about 1800 a share but Apple will begin a slight slide this year.

4. Oscar Buzz - I don;t understand the first thing about the criteria that makes one movie win an academy award over the other, so my only bold prediction here is that whatever movie wins the best picture award will earn less then $100 million at the box office.

5. Sporting World - Broncos will win the Super Bowl, Dodgers will win the World Series, The Thunder will win the NBA finals, and nobody cares about Hockey.

See you all in 365 days to see how I did, see you then (and hopefully several times in between!)

Bonus Prediction: This Blog will clear the 21,000 page view mark.