My 12 predictions for the year ahead

There's no doubt that 2012 will be chock-full of surprises. But what will they be? Matthew Lynn forecasts 12 events that will make the year ahead one to remember - or one to forget.

The euro came close to unravelling. The developed world slipped back into recession. Greece defaulted on its debts and Italy came close to following it. Banks hovered on the edge of collapse and stockmarkets tanked. Last year turned out to be a worse one than anyone expected. Will 2012 be any better? No one knows. One thing can be forecast, however: it will be full of surprises. Here are 12 I'm watching out for.

The tech boom crashes. Facebook will launch the most over-hyped initial public offering (IPO) since the dotcom bubble peaked more than a decade ago. But amid a terrible market, and with signs that it isn't making the fortune once predicted, investors will stay away. That will herald a wider tech crash.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.