A retiring president, slower economic growth, and another hot year are in store for 2020.

Retiring president. U.S. President Donald Trump will retire this year because he dare not contest the U.S. presidential election in November; losing it would expose citizen Trump to virtually certain criminal charges and possible civil suits. Vice President Mike Pence becomes President Pence when Trump retires. He will pardon Trump for his alleged crimes. Happy ever after!

Slower growth. A report by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is typical of numerous projections of slower economic growth. In November, the bank predicted growth of U.S. gross domestic production (GDP) to slow from 2.5 percent in 2018 and 2.2 percent in 2019 to 1.8 percent in 2020. The rest of the world’s most prosperous nations are mostly expected to experience something similar. (https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/fourth-quarter-2019/forecasters-see-lower-gdp-growth-2020 ) In Europe, Germany has been in recession, and departure from the European Union (Brexit) could perhaps push Britain into recession. The U.S.-China trade war continues drag the economy.

Hot year. Another hot year is in store for 2020, but no record high, despite record atmospheric concentration of global warming greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide. The hottest year on record is 2016 when the global average temperature was 1.16° C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. Britain’s Meteorological Agency forecasts global average temperature in 2020 at 1.11° C above the pre-industrial average. (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/19/2020-to-be-one-of-hottest-years-on-record-met-office-says).