Predicciones 2014

10 Predicciones interesantes:

1. Forget Coca-Cola or Pepsi: there’s a new beverage king in town.

SodaStream (NYSE: SODA) — is in a clear uptrend. And I predict it will catch fire over the next 12 months and become a serious threat to Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

2. Apple will create a new currency called iCash and become the largest bank in America.

It recently acquired biometrics security firm AuthenTec (Nasdaq: AUTH)

3. Instead of dealing with doctors, waiting rooms, and painful treatments, a new medical device will allow you to diagnose any illness, anytime, anywhere.

I predict that in the next twelve months a device will be made that allows you to diagnose an illness from your own home. It’ll weigh less than 5 pounds. It’ll cost as little as $50. And it will probably be created by a 16-year-old from Maryland named Jack Andraka.

He’s already created a similar device. In 2012 — then just 15 years old — Jack created a dip stick that detects pancreatic cancer. This detector is "nearly 100% accurate, 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive, and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests," according to British newspaper Daily Mail.

This achievement won the boy genius a $75,000 scholarship at the 2012 Intel Science Fair. But he’s not resting on his laurels. He’s hard at work on a device that he says will "diagnose any disease instantly."

4. One of the most important electronic devices of the last 146 years will disappear.

Within the next 12 months, I predict a computer’s primary interface will be touch and voice.

5. Russia will end a 20-year treaty with the United States that’s responsible for 10% of our electricity supply

6. Strategic metals will be caught in a severe supply crunch in 2014.

The Surprise Investment of the Next Year Will Be Uranium.

For example, China has already begun building more than two dozen new reactors. These will triple the size of its nuclear reactor fleet over the next decade. And India has 20 operating nuclear reactors with 7 more under construction.

But all those new reactors can’t deliver a single kilowatt without uranium.

Problem is, there’s not enough to go around. The world’s 435 active reactors burned through about 180 million pounds of uranium last year. But miners could only produce around 140 million pounds — leaving a 40 million pound shortfall.

Rare Earth Metals Will Be Caught in a Severe Supply Crunch in 2013 — Prices Will Soar

7. A bizarre plant from the Midwest will end America’s dependence on foreign oil.

…will be a strange plant called switchgrass.

Like all plants, switchgrass contains a special sugar deep inside it. If extracted properly, this special sugar can be converted into fuel for cars, homes, airplanes…

Switchgrass’ advantage over other plants is that it’s extremely hardy. It can grow on unfertile land. And, if cared for properly, it only needs to be planted once every ten years.

That means companies and farmers could plant switchgrass en masse on land that most crops can’t grow on anyway — and produce billions of gallons of fuel.

According to a 2012 study by Michigan State University, doing this would amount to 5.5 billion gallons of fuel per year. But I think that amount could be more than doubled.

Some of the world’s largest energy corporations — Royal Dutch Shell, BP, etc. — are heavily invested in various alternative projects around the world. Multi-million dollar plants and factories are sprouting up everywhere: Iowa, Brazil, Michigan, India

And stories are starting to show up in mainstream outlets like Forbes, Bloomberg, and Businessweek, as well as in trade publications. We’re getting closer every day.

8. Bolivia’s socialist president Evo Morales will nationalize the world’s largest pure silver mine, now owned by an Idahoan company. The price of silver will soar.

Bolivia, where the country’s socialist president Evo Morales has already threatened to expropriate silver mines. Bolivia is home to the world’s largest pure silver mines, operated by Idaho-based Coeur d’Alene Mines (NYSE: CDE).

9. 2014 will usher in the age of the drone.

– In 2011, a drone was used by a North Dakota sheriff’s department to capture six cow thieves, according to the LA Times.
– A videographer named Daniel Garate uses a $5,000 drone to capture riveting photos of upscale properties in Los Angeles and sells them to realtors. Now he’s being asked to take pictures of celebrities.
– The Georgia Department of Transportation just received a $75,000 grant to study the use of drones for inspecting bridges and roads.

This is a tiny sampling. I could make a list a mile long of innovative drone applications coming to market as we speak. How far could this market go?

U.S. spending has increased 890% in the past decade, going from $550 million to nearly $5 billion. And in 10 years, the FAA predicts that the global drone market could be as much as $90 billion.

Indeed, the FAA projects that the government alone will have more than 10,000 licensed drones by 2017, up from less than 1,000 today.

10. This tiny company will kill the gasoline engine.

The biggest roadblock — which is the fact that most gas stations only offer traditional gasoline — is being solved by a company called Clean Energy Fuels (CEF).

Led by billionaire T. Boone Pickens, CEF built 70 new natural gas filling stations in 2012. And now it’s teaming up with natural gas producer Encana to establish what it calls a "Green Corridor" — a whole chain of filling stations — in North America.

The Chinese are getting in on the action, too. One of China’s largest private companies just partnered with a Salt Lake City firm called CH4. They plan to build a new filling station every week across America.

And as I said, there’s plenty of natural gas to cover demand. Some experts predict that the amount found in existing reserves alone could last for another 90 years.

That means natural gas is extremely affordable for everyone to use. Today, it’s half the cost of diesel.

In other words, any company looking to roll out a new fleet of vehicles could cut their costs by 50% just by using natural gas vehicles.