I have many predictions on the future of not only the United States, but the world, economy, technology, and politics. My top 2008 predictions are as follows:

$100 Oil per Barrel
We will reach $100 oil per barrel. It is a given, crude oil has steadily risen over the years. With the United State’s short supply of oil and the increasing demand for energy, it is inevitable it will reach the over the $100 mark. World oil demand is currently surging far higher than normal rates. One third of the oil demand growth comes from China, which isn’t surprising.

Alternative Energy Stocks to Watch For
The days of stable, higher oil prices are here and it looks like they won’t be falling down to $80 anytime soon or ever in this case. So I have a few alternative energy-related stocks to lookout for in the New Year: Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), General Electric Company (GE), Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), and Toray Industries, Inc. (TYO). I won’t go into detail of each stock. I will leave that up to you to do your research.

Technology Stocks
The NASDAQ is a good index to buy. The NASDAQ has had double digit returns to date. Technology is what drives the world today and will continue to drive the world of tomorrow. Ecommerce, semiconductors, computer storage, software, and electronics (e.g. HD Televisions) have all been doing well during this subprime mortgage crisis. Some stocks to look out for are Apple, Google, Citrix Systems, Intel, Teradyne, Logitech, Seagate, EMC, VMWare, and Flextronics.

Politics
My prediction is Mitt Romney versus Hilary Clinton in the presidential primary. And the rest is up to you! I can’t predict any further. I just hope for no higher taxes, lowering our budget deficit, restore our world leader standing, slow global warming, fix social security, lower healthcare costs, reduce dependency on oil, promote alternative energy and energy saving, and raise the standard of living.

Economic Slowdown (recession?)
There will be a slowdown in the economy in the first half and three-quarters of the new year (recession?) and the economy will slowly begin to improve in the last quarter of 2008 with uncertainties in the economic outlook for 2009. The subprime mortgage will still take another year or two to correct. But the upcoming “slowdown” in the economy is more of a correction due to the subprime issues.

Online Media
YouTube (owned by Google) will begin to integrate ads into videos by either placing them before or after the video begins to play. Online media begins to get a larger stronghold in the consumer media market by having more television networks upload even more video/media content to their website.

Well, after 2 weeks since the start of my investment project on September 16, 2007 I have made a return of approximately 9.87% in the stock market. This return is what I have made in only two weeks and when compared to the annual rate of a CD account at Bank of America of 5.10% APY. When Bank of America’s rate is converted to a two week timeframe, you only earn a 0.00196% return on your investment.

If you recall, I “supposedly” invested $999.45 dollars into the stock market and my market value of those assets are now $1,098.14. I made nearly $100 return on a short-term two week investment. I believe with stocks I invested in for this short-term project, it will peak at a 16% return, meaning I will not see substantial increases in the stock prices till the coming few months closer to the holiday season for some of my stocks. So I will continue to leave my stocks in and monitor on a weekly basis.