Futurist says social institutions are entering the 'shift age'

If you're a futurist, this is your time of year. David Houle, described as "America's leading futurist" on the cover of his new book, "Entering the Shift Age," has plenty to say about what's coming in 2013 and beyond.

"I look at 2010 to 2020 as the transformation decade. Most of your institutions will change in character and form," said Houle, speaking from his office in Chicago.

"This is the decade when legacy thinking will fall away at an alarming rate," he said.

"I grew up reading Alvin Toffler, Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller in the 1960s and 1970s. I coined the phrase, the shift age, five years ago," Houle said.

Among the institutions that will shift in this decade will be higher education, he said. "I'm predicting that (higher ed) will be the next big bubble," said Houle, pointing to mounting student debt and the indebtedness of universities.

The futurist said that even a basic thing like the concept of a job is going to change. "The job is a 300-year-old institution that's going away. People will become more like independent contractors," Houle said.

As for 2013, he had some specific predictions. "The Gross Domestic Product in this country will grow between 2 and 3 percent. Unemployment will be stuck around 7 percent. A barrel of oil will be in the $90 to $120 range while natural gas will stay cheap," Houle said.

Reto Gallati, president of Chicago-based Raetia Investments, and author of "Investment Discipline: Making Errors is OK, Repeating Errors is Not OK," offered his own economic predictions for 2013:

- GDP will grow 2.2 percent.

- Unemployment will improve to 7.3 percent this year.

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Futurist says social institutions are entering the 'shift age'