It's forecasting time again, this year with an added meteorological spin -- and let's hope I'm not tempting more weird weather with that expression. Seeing Sandy's damage to so many homes, including my own, got me thinking back over the many years I have been warning that extreme weather would...

Keen trend watchers notice the way certain words rise up out of billions of conversations, evoking essential thoughts and feelings about the zeitgeist in a syllable or two. Current examples are "network," "communication," "community," "well-being," "awesome," "hardwired" and "mobile"; they're everywhere, all-purpose Swiss army knife words that defy simple definitions....

It's no coincidence that "native" is now becoming a trigger word in fashion and style. As modern life accelerates into a future that gets more virtual with every passing year, consumers are increasingly experiencing a sense of rootlessness. As growing numbers of us move jobs, cities and even countries, fewer...

Say "cities" and the negative associations come cascading out: noise, dirt, housing projects, shantytowns, concrete, crowding, crime, drugs, pollution, gridlock, stress, alienation. For many decades, people in the developed world flocked to live outside cities in suburbs or way out in the countryside, where they could escape all of that...

Although the African continent is not yet a paragon of peace and prosperity, compared with even a decade ago things are looking way up. While many parts of the world have been struggling with flat or flagging economic growth, Africa looks set to carry on growing at a fair clip....

If you had been offered a trip to Bilbao in the early 1990s, you probably would have asked, "Where is it?" and "What's there?" It's in northern Spain and, until 1997, with the launch of the legendary $228 million Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum, the best answer to that second question...

The financial meltdown of 2007-08 and the limping economy since then have prompted a range of fascinating responses and repercussions.

Anger and outrage have fueled movements such as the Tea Party in the United States and the Occupy movement in many countries, and maybe even contributed to the Arab Spring....

Writer Thomas Friedman recalls his parents telling him, "Finish your dinner -- people in China are starving." Now with his daughters, he wants to say, "Finish your homework -- people in China and India are starving for your job." One glance at the most recent results...

At some point in the past few years, you have probably seen a dad out alone carrying Junior in a sling as he shops for the best-value diapers and formula. You can easily imagine an ambitious young woman studying hard for a prestigious career, looking forward to landing a job...

The quest for perfection has come so far that it's now taken for granted, especially in new media. Digital imaging software slims silhouettes and erases skin blemishes. Digital recording technology corrects a singer's wobbly pitch and fills out a weak voice, making anybody sound...

If you live in Greece or Spain or even in parts of the United States, that nasty gurgling sound is the economy going down the drain. The official economy, that is -- the one that gets tracked by the accountants and tax officials and economists who feature in the media...

In a world of seven billion people, it's hard to get a coherent picture of where things really stand on the economy. While millions of average consumers struggle to afford the rising cost of basic foods, millions more happily swallow the prices of the hot new...

It's very easy to find people who think there's too much negativity. It's hard to find people who think negativity is a good thing. But if negativity is bad, why is there so much of it? Why is it so popular?

In news reporting, there are something like

This is the first in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman's forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year's book, What's Next?: What to Expect in 2013, will be published on 12/12/12 and available at 120MBooks.com....

In my last post, I wrote about the capitals of Innovation Nation -- the cities and schools where creativity, entrepreneurialism and academia are intersecting to produce hotbeds of innovation. Now I'd like to look at who lives in and who leads Innovation Nation.

The importance of the...

Forget about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What's really making America tick these days is innovation, an idea that has been on my mind a lot recently. This is a crucial time for the company I lead as we rethink our own innovation strategy and enjoy the clean...

Right after the horrendous tragedy of 9/11, I co-authored an op-ed about the effects of the attacks on the American psyche: shaken confidence, an all-too-keen awareness of lives ended and innocence lost. Much of that still holds true.

But with another decade between us and those terrible events, it's...

It's Memorial Day weekend and many of us are preparing for barbecuing, beaching or just hanging out. But a note landed in my partner Jim's email inbox a few days ago that made me pause and think about the true importance of this holiday: honoring the valor of our soldiers,...

In this election year, I've been on fear watch. Folks are fearful of everything from 2012 theories to GMOs to student loans taking over as the number one source of pain for college grads everywhere. A few years ago, I talked at length about the cult of anger our country...

I remember being blown away by An American Family, which was a compelling and unorthodox documentary miniseries when it was made back in 1973 that showed the world the "typical" American family was anything but. Much time has passed since the Louds captivated our psyches (HBO recently did its own...