Artificial intelligence creates a security crisis, Saudi Arabia buys the Champions League and people stop training, Saxo Bank predicts in its “wild forecast” for 2024.
Following tradition, the Danish investment bank Saxo Bank publishes its report «Outrageous predictions“For next year. Some are more likely than others.
The wild predictions for 2024 were given the subtitle “End of the Road.”
The path the world has taken since the financial crisis of 2008, with stable geopolitics, low inflation, and low interest rates, is at the end of the road after the pandemic years. Investors and politicians are now betting on the “old normal” and that in 2024 we will be sent into an uncertain future, the bank wrote.
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Although Saxo Bank stresses that the annual forecast is not intended to be an actual prediction of things happening, many previous forecasts have ended up coming true to a greater or lesser extent.
Saudi Arabia buys the Champions League
The first “wild prediction” for 2024 is that the price of oil will rise to $150, and Saudi Arabia will then buy the entire Champions League in football – or “Champions League” as the vast majority call it.
Football has become great in the Arabian Peninsula.
As early as February 2024, football legends will be able to do so Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi meet in Riyadh. The first plays for a Saudi team, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has big plans to make the Saudi league one of the top ten leagues in the world.
In Saxo Bank's crazy hex, the Crown Prince would first buy the Champions League, which would then turn it into a world championship.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led OPEC+ oil cartel is an important player when it comes to the supply side of the global oil market.
Saxo Bank predicts that oil demand will rise significantly over the summer after the green transition becomes too expensive. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Crown Prince is throttling the oil tap again, bringing the price of oil to $150 per barrel.
Obesity drugs make people stop exercising
Danish obesity drug maker Novo Nordisk has become Europe's largest listed company. As the doorstep mile increases, productivity declines and Saxo Bank predicts a “global health crisis.”
When the supply of obesity drugs increases, prices fall. Saxo Bank believes the authorities will view obesity drugs as a cost-saving measure, as health will improve and money will be saved elsewhere in the healthcare system. The demand will then become so great that people will have to stand in line to get their shots.
At the same time, people will stop living healthy.
The bank expects global obesity rates among adults to rise from 39 percent today to 45 percent in 2024.
It results in a number of other side effects, such as an increased incidence of diabetes or even increased heart disease, more infections due to decreased muscle strength and a general decrease in the effectiveness of the immune system. This causes a decline in productivity, the bank writes.
The end of capitalism in the United States
Next year there are elections in the United States. Saxo Bank expects that the US government will have to significantly increase public spending in the middle of the election campaign to keep the economy going and avoid social unrest.
Due to inflationary pressures and foreign investors repatriating their money, demand for US Treasury bonds is weakening. This causes bond prices to rise.
In a desperate attempt to normalize borrowing costs, the US government has exempted income from government bonds from taxes, Saxo Bank writes.
This will mark the end of capitalism, as money moves from the private to the public sector.
Moreover, there will be a long period of nationalization and government aid to vital sectors that struggle to raise funds.
AI theft creates a security crisis
Saxo Bank expects AI to become a national security threat after an AI deepfake robbed a high-ranking official in a developed country.
This leads to stricter regulations and increased fear among investors who take their money elsewhere.
The resulting security crisis is increasing uncertainty regarding information coming from the Internet, where it is said that 90 percent of all information on the web comes from artificial intelligence.
Moreover, expectations indicate that all developed countries apply strict laws regulating which newsrooms are allowed to transmit news to the public.
Other forecasts
Other forecasts for Saxo Bank are as follows:
- Six deficit countries organize themselves into the so-called “Club of Rome”. They must work together to reduce their deficits and establish new rules for global trade. Meanwhile, gold, silver and cryptocurrencies are doing very well as the dollar is set to face a challenge.
- Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wins the presidential election. For the first time in history, the winner of the US presidential election is a candidate who does not represent one of the two major parties. At the same time that the traditional political system in the United States is changing, voters will demand an end to all wars forever.
- Strong economic growth in Japan. Saxo Bank expects Japan to achieve 7 percent growth in GDP. Good times mean that Japanese investors want to move their money back home, causing the value of the Japanese yen to rise significantly.
- The European Union imposes a tax on luxury goods. The European Union needs more money to finance expensive projects. The money is raised through a new wealth tax of 2 percent of assets. The law reduces the shares of luxury goods company LVHM by 40% on the stock exchange.
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