Six shocks…

25 Nov Six shocks…

… or rather major challenges for the years to come, of which we can already see weak (and even strong) signals. Geert Noels, chief economist at the financial intelligence group Petercam, recently published a book entitled “Econoshock: how six economic shocks will fundamentally change your life”.

In an insightful wake-up call, he describes 6 megatrends to take into account as we move ahead. We highlight them in a few words:

demoshock: demographically speaking, ageing is not the only challenge society faces, also population increase, megacities & their consequences for food, infrastructure, resources, lifestyles etc. pose tremendous challenges Chinashock: shifting economic & geopolitical balances, the East moves & shakes, poses threats and opportunities … ict-shock: developments in ICT are about to play a central role in the makeover of the new generations of the world’s energy infrastructures oilshock: the search for alternative sources of energy goes on and puts pressure on our systems & societies in general … financeshock: greed, irresponsible behaviour, no precautionary measures, no checks … just a few of the causes behind the financial collapse we are living these days. The solution lies in a reversal of these causes. hebzucht, onverantwoordelijkheid, géén voorzorgsmaatregelen, géén controles. De remedies liggen voor de hand: het omgekeerde. ecoshock: ecological challenges such as climate change push for major societal changes. do we need an IMF for climate? the financial crisis already cost an estimated 250bn$ (and counting), the climate shock will require at least 600bn$