Every start of the year, astrologers and economists make predictions to guide individuals, communities, and nations. Most of us seek these predictions so we can have an idea of how the year is going to be and so we can at least prepare ourselves for whatever is in store for us. However, it is not always a good thing to rely on them, primarily because they are just predictions, not reality. Just because somebody foretold that something is going to happen does not necessarily mean that it is really going to happen. In fact, many of the predictions told in the past remain unfulfilled up to this day. Here are the 10 epic fail predictions of 2013 which should help us learn to understand that predictions are not always true.
1. Healthcare.gov to be like Amazon or Travelocity
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Days before Healthcare.gov website was launched on October 1, the government’s infomercial hosts on the media already talked a lot about its goodness which, according to them, will be like Amazon or Travelocity. Customers only have to choose the insurance they want and hit ‘Buy’ to be able to finish the process – a typical online shopping website it is. However, the website repeatedly crashed whenever it was accessed after its launch. A “tech surge” was initiated by the president to fix the problems of the site, but it still kept crashing even after the deadline set for its re-launch on December 1.
2. A Disastrous Hurricane Season
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Several networks claimed that the year would be a disastrous hurricane season, saying that extremely active hurricanes would hit the country especially during summer and fall. ABS, CBS, and NBC all seemed to have embraced the predictions about the season by aggressively hyping how sever and powerful hurricanes would be. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration even said that there will be around 7 to 11 high-activity hurricanes, and will cause danger to those living near the east coast. But came Atlantic hurricanes and everything turned upside down. 2013 hurricane season was named the slowest in 2013 years, in which only 2 storms reached the hurricane status. Networks that claimed 2013 to be a disastrous hurricane season before said very little about their claim when the season ended.
3. Havoc in Economy due to Government Shutdown
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The government shutdown of 2013 scared everyone as they expected their country to fall apart with the absence of the ‘center of their universe.’ On October 1, the U.S. government was shut down for an indefinite period, which caused broadcast news and print outlets to exaggerate the situation. Projected loss in the economy of different networks amounted to $24 billion, despite the federal government’s own estimate of $2 billion to $6 billion. This high-end estimate was promoted by the media until the Office of Management and Budget estimated the loss to the same amount as the federal government’s claim. Most of the media companies ignored the news when it came out.
4. Ice Melt because of Climate Change
Photo Source: www.forbes.com
Ever since Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth documentary came out, a lot have been said about climate change and global warming. The fourth most embarrassing prediction of 2013 is somehow related to this, as it said that climate change will increase the ice melt in different parts of the world, particularly the North and South Poles. Some networks even used the word catastrophic to describe the projected effect of the ice melt. But it seems that the prediction failed again. The New York Times acknowledged the fact that there are actually new ice formations in the Arctic Ocean. Additionally, in 2013, Antarctica’s sea ice hit record-high that it was said to be not small an increase.
5. “You can keep your plan”
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ObamaCare’s passage, “If you like your plan, you can keep it” was one thing that President Obama himself kept on saying as a promise to his people. This is about the insurance purchased from the government, for which the consumers had to pay. But, according to NBC’s investigation, the administration had known since 2010 that the passage was wrong. It was a huge mistake that the media failed to scrutinize the law properly to discover that the president was not saying the truth. Moreover, New York Times’ Mark Halperin said that it was not just about the press’ failure to do their job, but the flaws themselves of how the media works in their country.
6. Sequester Sky to Fall
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Disastrous claims of the Department of Transportation, Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies are among the most embarrassing predictions of 2013. Aside from the spending cuts, it was also said that terrorism, violent crimes, meat shortages, airport delays, and prices of goods and services will eventually increase. Had the said budget sequestration materialize, it would have been a totally disastrous year for the United States. But the federal government did not allow all these to happen with the appropriation bills they passed and cut-off of only non-essential expenditures of the government. The cut in federal spending amounted to only $44 billion, a little more than the half of the projected amount which was $85 billion.
7. Fiscal Cliff Diving
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An actual Fiscal Doomsday was what the country was expecting for 2013, but it seemed that none of the predictions about it happened in anytime of the year. Warnings on a fiscal cliff-related recession were already released as early as December 2012 by the three major networks – ABC, CBS, NBS. The Congressional Budget Office also predicted a huge jump of unemployment rate from 7.9% to 9.1% in just a span of one year. However, all these predictions did not come to life. Fortunately, no recession or skyrocketing unemployment was recorded in 2013. The stock market hit record-high, and unemployment rat went down from 7.8% to 7.0% by the end of the year.
8. Soaring Gas Prices
Photo Source: business.time.com
Brad Tuttle, finance reporter of Time Magazine once said that to wholly trust prediction on gas prices within a given month is unwise. So, he gave his own predictions for the year 2013 concerning gas prices. Tuttle forecasted a rise on the price of gas from $3.39 to $4 flat per gallon. That time, $3.39 was the price of gas. Additionally, he also said that there would be a “soar” on the price by the end of the year that will amount to 25 cents to 30 cents. However, according to AAA, Tuttle’s predictions failed based on their records. Gas prices had not been higher than $3.79 until the end of the year, and it even went down to $3.18 in November.
9. Fed’s Taper
Photo Source: www.straitstimes.com
An end in the Federal government’s quantitative easing – buying up assets from banks – dominated the business news of America before the third quarter of the year 2013 started. The news was all over the country that every businessman, company, and market, became so worried of the effect the taper would have on them once the Federal government start to end the easing on September 2013, according to different news outlets. Markets started to sell off their stocks as early as June, leading to an aggressive preparation for the taper. However, traders were dismayed as the taper did not materialize until the November 25 news on USA Today about the probable adjusted date of easing on December. They sold their stocks too early, basically because of the confusing message and predictions from the Fed and the media.
10. Food Fights
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CNN Contributor David Frum predicted by the end of 2012 a huge drop in corn harvest and high grain prices once 2013 starts. These specific predictions would cause social strife among citizens of the country as they cry and fight for food, and that the crisis had already begun and will be inescapable for everyone. Extreme change in weather will be one great cause of the then coming shortage. He added that this crisis will even extend up to the next president of the United States of America. But like all the predictions mentioned earlier, this one is also regarded as off the mark. It was true that in 2013, food prices increased. However, the Consumer Price Index said that the increase was far less than the previous years. From 3.7% in 2011 and 2.6% in 2012, the increase in 2013 was only between 1.5% and 2.5%.