What was that crude line uttered by Clint Eastwood (playing Dirty Harry) about opinions?

Oh yes: "Well, opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one."

I guess the same could be said about predictions. 

Probably once the domain of prophets, sooth-sayers and the occasional visionary we are nowadays bombarded with predictions from all and sundry.

Bitcoin price, pandemic infection rates, outcomes of wars, all have figured prominently in recent prediction thinking.  

Only time can prove a prediction correct or not and time provides a convenient blanket of cover for those who get it wrong.

But as we all have our own perception of reality - the world viewed from our own fractured ego-mind - the actual result of some predictions are also not always easy to define as correct or not. They are seemingly forever debatable.

Just take a look at the 16th Century French Astrologer Nostradamus for example. His work has caused endless disagreements between scholars. 

One particular quatrain from his work, Les Prophéties, a collection of 942 poetic verse, has intrigued economists and financiers since its publication and maybe of interest to some readers here.

(C4, Q20)
"The copies of gold and silver inflated
which after the theft were thrown into the lake,
at the discovery that all is exhausted and dissipated
All scrips and bonds will be wiped out."

Was he talking about the end of our financial system now in 2022?

Possibly or just as possibly, not. That is the benefit/curse of an open ended prediction.

The predictions that can be evaluated post-event of course are those that are time specific and have a definite outcome.

It is one of those I would like to focus on for the majority of this article.

Conspiracy Gold or an Inflated Copy?

Whatever your personal take is on conspiracy theorists, the definition of their label shows they are not afraid to think outside of the box, to question the established view of things.

Around ten years ago, conspiracy theorists believed they had come across predictions that foretold momentous changes for the world by the year 2025.

Deagel.com is website that reports on military equipment and civil aviation and they published projections for countries in terms of population, gross domestic product, military expenditure, and an individuals Power Purchase Parity (in USD) for the year of 2025.

That page is now only accessible via the wayback machine and it should be noted that the contents of it have been enthusiastically debunked by factcheckers.

At this stage we cannot tell who is correct, the theorists or the factcheckers, but that is really irrelevant for now. We have Deagel's predictions and their timeline so by the appropriate year (2025) we will be able to ascertain for ourselves whether there was any value in the provided data.

A sample of the predictions are included here as a guide to the scope of the changes they forecast.

*Remember, these are just someones predictions, not fact, so they are not to be accepted as guaranteed to happen.*

Just a curious glance at the charts will show that according to Deagel around 250 million Americans will be 'gone' (either by willing migration or through more negative circumstances) and for those people remaining, their individual purchasing power will be less than a fifth of what it is now. 

As you can see, the reversal of fortunes predicted for some other countries would be just as unfathomable to most people who 100% believe in the mainstream media narrative of today.

Deagel provided little commentary on why the changes would occur. For those interested, a few paragraphs of explanation are included on the last page on the wayback machine quoted above.

Interestingly, they state "no pandemic or nuclear war is included in the forecast" but rather "The collapse of the Western financial system will wipe out the standard of living of its population while ending ponzi schemes such as the stock exchange and the pension funds."

In Deagel's brief explanation, it seems they are basing their predictions on a similar analysis to Nostradamus 500 years previously in that the new financial age complete with population adjustments will come about because existing "scrips and bonds will be wiped out."

No mention is made by Deagel of how cryptocurrencies or central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) play into this. Whether this is by design, accident or simply ignorance of (the then) emerging digital asset class, I do not know.

Latest Predictions

Knowledgable and well-connected investment strategist Zoltan Pozsar has been reported as saying we are right now "Witnessing the birth of a new world monetary order."

He has suggested this order will likely be "...centred around commodity-based currencies in the East that will likely weaken the Eurodollar system and also contribute to inflationary forces in the West."

However, he does recognise that when this phase is over, "...“money” will never be the same again… and Bitcoin (if it still exists then) will probably benefit from all this."

Pozsar has not gone as far as Deagel in describing the fall of the western financial dominance but they certainly appear to be resonating on the same frequency.

It's also worth emphasising that Pozsar can see a time where BTC holders would benefit from the change in order regardless of any particular country they are residing in.

The Credit Suisse analyst does not elaborate on this particular issue but in yet another prediction - this time from long-time Bitcoin advocate, Simon Dixon - we are told that a strong US CBDC would provide a firm enough base for Bitcoin and other blockchain projects to flourish after the reset which could at least partially preserve the purchasing power of residents worldwide, including those in western-aligned countries.

Dixon believes with a Federal Reserve FEDcoin a safer means of transfer to new monetary system could be achieved, allowing the continuation of the USD as a functioning and relevant global currency, at least in the short to medium term. 

Such an outcome would help to reduce the need for migration away from these countries specified by Deagel as well as providing some hope of individual wealth preservation for those who are not yet crypto-savvy.

Nostradamus-Deagel-Pozsar-Dixon, all have envisaged great financial shifts that will reshape the world but only one, Deagel, has committed to a prophecy date. By 2025 we will know if their conviction in timing was correct.