I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. These aren’t going to be particuarly detailed or anything, but here are some of my predictions for the coming year:

—- President Barack Obama will be re-elected as U.S. President. He will defeat the Republican ticket of Mitt Romney/John Thune with between 300 and 330 electoral votes and 51%-53% of the popular vote.

—-Ron Paul will seriously consider a third-party bid for President after failing to win the Republican nomination, but will ultimately decide against it before the end of the summer.

—-Both the U.S. Senate and House will be closely contested, and which party controls each of them won’t be clear until deep into election night.

—-London Mayor Boris Johnson will be re-elected, defeating Ken Livingstone with between 50.5% and 52.5% of the vote.

—- François Hollande will be elected President of France, defeating the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, but by a narrower margin than expected (about 51.5% to 48.5% in the second round of voting).

—- Team GB will do relatively poorly at the London Olympics, but the media will still somehow spin it.

—- England will reach the semi-finals of the Euro.

—- The global economic outlook will be considerably better by the end of the year.

—- And finally….the world won’t end on December 21st.