Four Major Trends Affecting the World:

1. *The Age Wave* - the increasing average age of the population.

2. *The Information Revolution* - data everywhere faster.

3. *Global Climate Change* - Katrina, the fact we've had 2 Cat.5 hurricanes earlier than ever before, the disappearance of species, etc., etc.

4. *Increasing Monetary Instability* ... "there are many more people now who have an interest in profiting from instability; previously, they had an interest in stability. If you have an unstable system, it is just a question of when it will fly off the handle. It will blow apart at the moment when the US dollar experiences a crisis. When the dollar crisis occurs, the world will have no system left."

"The biggest concern today is the growing constituency for instability."
-—Paul Volcker, ex-governor of the US Federal Reserve, in Changing Fortunes.

"Instability is cumulative, so that the eventual breakdown of freely floating exchanges is ensured."
-—George Soros, the largest currency speculator today, in The Alchemy of Finance.

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