Seven financial surprises to watch out for in the coming year

Could the BBC be privatised? And has Mark Carney bitten off more than he can chew? Matthew Lynn looks to the year ahead to see what surprises may be lurking around the corner.

When Gary Cooper turned down the part of Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, he quipped: "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face, and not Gary Cooper." Any columnist knows how Cooper must have felt in hindsight. Predictions are as likely to make you look stupid as smart. Still, with the caveat that my abilities to map out the future are about as good as Cooper's, here are a few things that may or may not happen in 2013.

The BBC is privatised

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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.