So, where do we go from here?

The world’s most powerful economy has been laid low by the economic equivalent of a 100-year flood. Millions lost their jobs, century-old institutions came crashing down, and a presidential election was affected, if not decided, by the fallout. You’ve heard all the awful statistics and scary comparisons with the Great Depression, so we won’t belabor the point here. Allow us just one, powerful number: The economic meltdown we’ve just experienced has washed away more than $20 trillion in wealth. That’s a game-changing development that will affect how we work, where we live, and even our nation’s standing in the world. So if the crash of 2008 was an inflection point, what’s on the other side? Mohamed El-Erian, co-CEO of Pimco, describes our future as “the new normal,” a period of slower growth, increased government regulation, reduced borrowing, and higher taxes. In such a world, power is likely to shift from financiers to shop stewards, from America to other nations.

Of course, there’s no way to know exactly what this new normal has in store for us. But we can identify a few highly probable large-scale shifts because they involve facts — like demographics, market math, and Social Security arithmetic. The great bull market of the ’80s and ’90s, for example, benefited from a tailwind of falling interest rates, boatloads of borrowing, and a game-changing technological breakthrough in the form of the Internet. Those breezes are unlikely to be at our back in the coming years.

Some of the trends we identify may surprise you. In the following stories, we’ll explain why women will have an advantage in the workplace, how you might be able to secure double-digit returns in the stock market, and why you’re better off playing bridge than poker.

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