Editor's Note: On May 1st, Buyers Meeting Point issued an Open Call for predictions about the future of procurement as part of the #FutreBuy project I am working on with Jon Hansen (Procurement Insights, PI Window on the World). We welcome all predictions, either as comments to our posts on the subject, guest submissions, or posts on Twitter flagged with our #FutureBuy hashtag.

The New Monroe Doctrine:  The US and Mexico reach a new geopolitical arrangement, beyond Nafta, beyond immigration, that leverages the resources of Mexico - workforce, manufacturing centers, oil, and in combination with Canada's oil, redefines and strengthens  The Americas' global trade powerhouse.  Other American countries follow.  

Water, even in the US, becomes the new oil. When I said this to a BP vice president, we joked about slicing off a piece of Antarctica and floating it up to California. They've got the tools to work it.

The Chinese Box that Morley and I envisioned in The Technology Machine, How Manufacturing Will Work in the Year 2020, is just about here in plastics and electronics. 

Blinded by the buzz:  3D printing capabilities far exceeded by vision systems impact.

Bricks and Mortar:  Even The Cloud sits on brick and mortar -  it's the moats and bunkers that differentiate.  By the time companies figure it all out, they will be too addicted to data to walk it back.

The United States of the Americas:  Redrawn geopolitical trade agreements effectively kill the illegal drug and human trafficking trades.

UN headquarters in NYC was constructed on the donated site of a former slaughterhouse... a slaughterhouse...The UN will either strengthen its hold on more human rights issues, or it will be supplanted by a new real power structure that controls money flows and intelligence flows in The Americas.