Remember how feisty John McLaughlin would get with his guests, especially for the predictions segments? "Elinor Gee-I-think-You're-Swelinor Cliff, political forecast for next year?" "..." "Wrong!" Let's see how well my prognostication fares.
The Virus who Cried Wolf and Related Matters:
Just when amateurs felt it was safe to loiter in the stock-markets, the world wide economy will take another culling swipe, though this time, fuel and commodity costs will be artifically buoyed up. Some markets will implode because there's no cheapness in manufacturing to offset unemployment and other financial strains. This second blow may lead to calls for cesession and repartitioning and reorganization of tax revenues in America.
Astronomers and researchers will be free to provide hard evidence of extra-terrestial life. Interestingly enough, the discovery will be made and PR handled through the Specola Vaticana (the pope's observatory in Castle Gandolfo). The resulting shift in people's priorities will almost be overwhelming--though people are very resilient when it comes to pursuing petty hang-ups.
Politically, the past decade was hardly predictable, at least from an American point-of-view, but I think those manouevers, even a resulting Republican renaissance, will appear less and less relevant, on the global and universal scale, as India begins to determine world policy.
Developments in the scientific arena, especially with the infusion of alien technology, will present some risky, ethically challenges, as it always does, but humanity's gentle introduction and prep-work through sci-fi and escapism turns out to serve us well.