Here are my seven fearless predictions for 2012:

1. The problems in Europe are not over, but they will muddle along. Fear will subside.

2. Mitt Romney will defeat Barack Obama for the presidency.

3. The Bank of Canada will raise interest rates.

4. Kate and Wills will be pregnant.

5. The Canadian dollar will end the year about where it is now, 98 cents U.S.

6. Rob Ford will be charged with an offence.

7. The S&P/TSX Composite index, down 11 per cent in 2011, will rise by at least that amount in 2012.

Thank you for your loyal readership. Season’s Greetings to all and a Happy, Healthy New Year in 2012.

I’m not one to play Chicken Little but the situation in Europe appears to be intractable. For 18 months politicians and bureaucrats have been claiming to do something but so far little has been accomplished. To be sure, some holders of Greek bonds voluntarily took a haircut, central banks have acted in concert, and leaders in Greece and Italy are out but the situation just grows worse. Tomorrow marks the eight summit on the crisis this year.

The worst case scenario is a cascading collapse that makes the Great Depression look like Disneyland. Meanwhile net world debt just keeps on rising, up 11 per cent annually for the last decade, fuelled by low interest rates and people at all levels – from consumers to governments – who can’t rein in spending to match income. Barack Obama saved capitalism once; no one seems able to act this time around.

For ordinary Canadians the impact has so far been muted. Anyone with a mortgage is happy with 4 per cent money, but investors are stuck in a rut. Retirement portfolios have gone sideways or down with no likelihood of rising anytime soon. Play it safe with GICs and your return doesn’t match inflation.

The European Community was created so Germany didn’t go to war again with its neighbours. The irony is that the only way out would see Germany run everything. That sounds like victory without a shot being fired. And a lot of collateral damage to the rest of us.

It’s been six months since Sandy died. Anyone who has lost a spouse, a mother, a son, or a close friend knows what these past few months have been like. At first, I couldn’t sleep at night and I couldn’t stay awake during the day. My stress levels were high. Tears would flow without notice. I saw a man on the subway carrying flowers I assumed he was taking home to his wife. That used to be me. I stood there and openly wept.

Family and friends have been very supportive. Without them, I couldn’t have made it this far. I worked in “our” garden most days this past summer. Sandy always called it her healing garden because she was diagnosed with cancer shortly after we moved to this house. She rebuilt what had been here and made it her own. Sandy always liked to move plants to new places; I was the designated digger. I used to call it “plants on wheels.” If she had been alive this past summer, I would have been moving all kinds of things. But, you know, everything came up perfectly. There was something in bloom from May to November. There were plenty of different heights, shapes, leaves, and colours. Her vision was finally complete although she could not enjoy it in the flesh.

I still wear my wedding ring. After 46 years of marriage, it’s just a habit. I keep fresh flowers on her bedside table. I come across notes she made and catch my breath. For a long while, I talked to her in the bedroom as if she were still there. I’ve stopped doing that because I know she’s watching. I don’t need to report.

Who knows how long this will go on. Probably forever in some form. And that’s OK, too. In fact, that’s exactly how I want it. It’s almost like Sandy never left. Almost.

For a time I was able to argue the Occupy Toronto situation either way. I agreed with those encamped at St. James Park that there are wrongs in society and within the economy that need to be addressed. But once attention has been drawn, then what? They have no plan, no leader, not even an ideology to keep them warm.

And yet I don’t want the rough-and-ready police response that we have seen in some cities. The protesters are not terrorists although they did charge through a few downtown office towers a couple of weeks ago. As a result, access for the rest of us was limited, security beefed up, and I had to be taken a circuitous back route to my destination because of all the locked doors. No big deal, and I was not much bothered.

But the ruling by Justice David Brown, released yesterday, has crystallized my thinking. I thought he wrote common sense when he said, “The Charter does not permit the protesters to take over public space without asking, exclude the rest of the public from enjoying their traditional use of that space, and then contend that they are under no obligation to leave. By taking that position and by occupying the park, the protesters are breaking the law.”

Nor have the protesters gained support from the Cathedral Church of St. James by arguing that church land abutting the park should be made available for their tents. No, said the Very Reverend Douglas Stoute, the land in question is not two separate pieces, it is a “seamless garment.” The church will obey the court’s ruling.

In fact, I guess I made up my mind about the situation when I walked through the encampment last Friday. It is familiar ground to me. I am a regular visitor, particularly during summer, when the garden is in full bloom. Any previous approval I might have offered the Occupiers evaporated when I saw what they had done to this beautiful space. To be sure, no flowers are in bloom at this time of year and the fountain is dry, but still it seemed an inappropriate use of the fountain to have a circle of protester sitting on its rim, winter boots scraping the bottom.

Worse, they have brought in items using heavy equipment that they ran across the park grass thereby creating muddy ruts. They have marred and marked the magnificent Victorian gazebo. They have damaged trees with wires and tie-downs. They have broken branches by pitching tents high above the ground. They have painted signs with no care or concern about the mess they left behind. Irrigation equipment has been rendered inaccessible and will be damaged if not properly prepared for winter.

These don’t look like crunchy-granola eco-people who care about the world, they just seem like the usual hooligans who have broken windows and torched police cars on other occasions. Here’s my bottom line. We have listened to you; now it’s time for you to listen to us. It’s time to move on … or be moved out. Your trespassing ways are no longer welcome.

The Conference Board of Canada has been harping about productivity for years, but their most recent figures are startling. Canadian productivity levels are only 80 per cent of what they are in the U.S., our largest trading partner. If Canada had kept pace with productivity growth in the United States during the last two decades, every Canadian would have $7,500 more in annual disposable income. Moreover, real GDP would have been 21.3 per cent higher, governments would have collected $31 billion more in revenue, and deficits would be less troublesome.

Why has this happened? First off, productivity isn’t about people working harder or faster. Productivity gains occur when work is more efficient and people produce more with the same effort. It helps when machinery is up-to-date and when the goods produced have a high value added factor. Exporting wheat, crude oil, and logs, for example, doesn’t offer much value added. The BlackBerry does.

The problem is that too many Canadian manufacturers are lazy. They are content to supply local or easily accessed U.S. markets. For a large part of the last two decades a devalued Canadian dollar skated even the least efficient companies onside.

Just look at the automotive sector. We’ve had free trade with the U.S. since 1965 yet there are only a handful of Canadian companies that have built on that advantage to become global giants. After Magna, Linamar, and Wescast the rest are small potatoes.

We need a lot more driven individuals like Frank Stronach, Frank Hasenfratz and Mike Lazaridis with visions bigger than themselves who are unafraid to take on the world. Without such entrepreneurs and the necessary investment in technology, Canada will continue sliding into third world status.