What's in the starts for 2014?
A possible cure for cancer. Another baby boy for Prince William and Kate Middleton. More space travel, with an end goal of vacations on Mars.
All these things could happen in 2014, according to psychic Barbara Mackey of Toms River, who has done psychic readings and paranormal investigations for 25 years.
“There’s going to be more self-awareness and conversations about the way the world is working,” Mackey said.
With outlooks from psychics to economists to futurists, a jam-packed entertainment and technology lineup — coupled with both hopeful and somber expectations for a struggling economy and clashing political parties — is on the horizon for the new year.
Looking ahead
Flo Higgins, an astrologer in Eatontown, said Aries, Capricorn, Cancer and Libra people are going to feel tremendous changes in their lives through mid-July.
Aquarius, Leo, Scorpio and Taurus people have been undergoing trials and tribulations but are due for a big payoff, Higgins said. Their long roads will calm down toward the end of 2014’s summer.
Gemini, Pisces, Sagittarius and Virgo people need to be careful, Higgins cautioned.
“They’ve got to use disciplines,” Higgins said. “They seem to get into a lot of trouble.”
Hollywood buzz
Stars expected to have a big 2014 include Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling and Miley Cyrus — who’ll have a quickie wedding and divorce and a possible spread in Playboy magazine, Mackey predicts.
“I think it’s going to be a continuation of what we’ve been going through, our moral standards are going to continue to drop … we’re going to have more Miley Cyrus-type things,” Higgins said.
Comedy could take entertainment’s reins this year, Mackey said.
“People want to laugh ... it seems that they’re thirsty to laugh and have fun, so people that can (act) in comedy are at the top of the list (this year),” Mackey said.
Economic rebound
Joel Naroff, an economist based in Holland, Pa., expects the nation’s economy to bounce back in the second half of the year.
“The remaining missing link in this recovery … we’re just not getting a lot of wage and salary gain,” Naroff said. “Who’s had a good salary increase lately? You have to get the unemployment down at a level where companies need to start bidding for workers. Some of that will happen in 2014.”
The year will end with an unemployment rate of 6.2 to 6.3 percent, he predicts.
“It will be 6.5 percent sometime by the summer,” Naroff said. “That’s when I expect wage gains to start picking up, that’s when personal incomes begin to grow faster … people will have more money to spend.”
But Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and member of the World Future Society, a nonprofit educational and scientific organization, doesn’t have the same positive outlook.
“It’s very disturbing that 80 percent of the new jobs were part-time (last year),” Zey said. “I see no indication from employers that they’re willing to increase their hiring — they’re making their profits through cost-cutting, investing in new technologies and few hirings.”
Zey added the nation has not grown beyond the 1 to 2 percent level, leaving little room to make a big jump in the new year.
“The only way the economy is going to boost itself is (by) people willing to create new jobs,” Zey said. “I would be shocked if we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of prosperity.”
Mackey predicts the economy will slowly improve in 2014. The United States will add to its manufacturing base, she thinks.
“People are going to take back and put the money into our country, a movement this year — let’s make everything ‘Made in the USA,’ ” Mackey said.
Technical advances
Technology will continue to rise at a rapid rate, Zey said, and 3-D printers will become more common in households.
“Now they have bio-printing, where they’re using medical tissue to create organs, from an ear to a pancreas … this is part of the medical discovery process.
“And as people hear about these, they don’t want to hear their insurance company isn’t going to pay for this. That’s part of the clash, the conflict that’s going to be taking place between all these breakthroughs at the medical level.”
Another possible health care advancement: Mackey thinks discoveries for a cancer vaccine will be made, and a cause of the disease will be targeted.
“It’s going to be a trial; they’re trying it right now, I believe,” Mackey said. “I think it might start out in Canada. I’m hopeful with this.”
Patrick Tucker, deputy editor for The Futurist magazine, discussed various technology inventions for this year and beyond. The magazine compiles a top 10 list of likely outcomes based on previously published articles.
Such events include reviving species that have recently become extinct, such as the western black rhino, the passenger pigeon and the gastric brooding frog.
“We’re going to reanimate recently extinct species … it’s not a cure-all to remove our responsibility (to take care of our ecosystem),” Tucker said. “It’s just a tool that we’re going to be using.”
Others include the ability to detect brain diseases 10 to 15 years before any physical symptoms occur.
Higgins predicts communication will continue to accelerate, yet there will be more options to protect one’s privacy on social media.
“We’ll have more advances in communication; they’re not stopping as far as Internet and the telephones,” Higgins said.
Political changes
Mackey’s predictions say local governments will be dismissed as citizens take matters into their own hands.
“I believe there’s going to be a collective consciousness that’s going to affect us on a worldwide, global level,” Mackey said. “We’re looking at ourselves and saying, ‘We do have the power to change things on a lower level.’
“We can’t count on the government; they used to be our role models, but no longer.”
She also didn’t think Hillary Clinton will emerge as a presidential candidate, but Higgins did.
President Barack Obama will be engulfed by scandal, Mackey added, while Higgins predicted he’ll become more outgoing.
What about Gov. Chris Christie as a presidential candidate?
“His discipline in getting his weight off … if he’s able to do that, he will run,” Higgins said. “He’s already running. He’s a Virgo; he’s very detail-oriented, and he’s got it all mapped out.”
“There’s going to be more self-awareness and conversations about the way the world is working,” Mackey said.