Are we (preppers) perhaps a little complacent? We prep for years for situations that will hopefully never arrive and we might be more shocked than we think when (finally) the SHTF.
As for the year ahead IMO;
NEGATIVE;
There is a huge financial crisis coming as the world transitions further away form the petro dollar and people realise that the issues behind the 2007/8 recession have not been dealt with, just kicked down the road. Western banking systems are no where near as solid and safe as people are led to believe, despite the stress test results. Interest rate rises will cause havoc across various markets and QE comes to an end.
The EU will see rises in internal political unrest and disruption. Migration into Europe is going to lead to major political changes and civil unrest in several countries (Hungary, Poland, Austria, Sweden.........) and political conflict with Brussels. Brexit still has the potential to cause civil unrest in the UK (Blair, Labour, Corbyn, Miller......)
Korea? Israel? Saudi? Ukraine? Venezuela? Several African countries? Take your pick as to which one will kick off first, but one or more is likely to I reckon. When everything else is going down the tubes, initiating armed conflict becomes a way to deflect peoples attention away from the real problem.
POSITIVE;
The rise of Crypto / Digital currencies and the blockchain have built up serious momentum now and will see 25% or more of the worlds population getting involved (currently its less than 0.05%)
Precious metals will finally see a decent rise in value (30% - 50%) as the negative points above take hold.
Climate change will bring a slightly a longer growing season to the UK
A certain smugness and wry smile will appear across many preppers faces as their foresight and planning come to fruition.