Perhaps that is just because I am getting older.  In any event, the first six months of 2022 are already in the tank.  During those six months, the largest land war in Europe since World War II has erupted, inflation has spiraled out of control all over the world, we have plunged into the worst energy crisis since the 1970s, a horrifying bird flu pandemic has killed tens of millions of turkeys and chickens in the U.S. alone, the worst monkeypox outbreak in history has begun, the S&P 500 had the worst start to a year since 1970, and global leaders have been relentlessly warning us that we are heading into an "unprecedented" planetary food crisis.  Unfortunately, I expect the second half of 2022 to be even worse.

Recently, I have been finding myself using the word "accelerate" a lot in my discussions with other people.  Global events have certainly accelerated during the first half of this year, and I am convinced that they will accelerate even more during the second half.

In particular, I believe that things will really start getting crazy once summer is over.

Let me give you a few areas that I will be focusing on in the months ahead.  The following are 5 trends to watch for during the second half of 2022…

#1 Economic Shaking

Obviously things have not gone well economically during the first half of this year.  Inflation is raging all over the globe, and economic activity is slowing down everywhere that you look.  Based on the latest reading from the Atlanta Fed's GDPNow model, it appears that the U.S. economy has already plunged into a recession.  I expect the U.S. economy to continue to deteriorate as we move toward the end of 2022, but I am actually far more concerned about economic conditions in Europe.