Fiction is predictive.

In my novel, The Trust, a Catholic charity launders money through a sex superstore. Total fiction from the depths of my imagination.

Several months after The Trust was published, Connecticut authorities indicted a Catholic priest for cooking methamphetamine. Here’s where it gets interesting. The priest used a sex shop to launder his drug money.

See what I mean?

During my previous life as a stockbroker, Morgan Stanley’s chief strategist introduced his annual list of top surprises on the first Monday after January 1. Now I ask, “Why can’t I, a novelist who writes ‘glittery thrillers’ (thanks, NYT) do the same thing?”

Here goes:

1. The Wolf of Wall Street Will Generate $1 Billion in Domestic Sales

If I’m right, this movie will blow away all existing records. Avatar is in first place today. Its domestic revenues exceed $750 million, which some attribute to the priciness of 3D tickets.

The Wolf’s big edge is advertising. Add great buzz, the teamwork of Scorsese and DiCaprio, the bacon-on-the-griddle pop of Terence Winter’s writing, and our nation’s struggle to understand greed on Wall Street-you get a blockbuster.

Side story: Stratton Oakmont, the boiler room where Jordan Belfort ran his scam, will raise questions. Are the on-screen antics for real or just a Hollywood cartoon?

I never saw the drugs and kinky horseplay at the Wall Street firms where I worked. But I heard about an investment banker who threw a costume party and went as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

He wore drag. He hired seven little people to complete his costume. Sick.

2. Novelists Will Promote Favorite Causes Through Fiction

Movie stars do it. Think Angelina Jolie or Matt Damon.

2014 is the year that authors jump on the bandwagon and put their creative juices to work for their favorite charities.

My rationale? It’s human nature. Helen Keller said, “We are never really happy until we brighten the lives of others.”

BTW, my favorite cause is The American Foundation for the Blind.

3. “Bitcoin” Will End Bricks-and-Mortar Banking

Okay, maybe not during 2014. But this digital currency is laying the foundation for ending ATM fees, forever. Digital currencies have given us the option to move over to the world of digitization and move our money to an invisible, untouchable mobile wallet (if interested, you can discover more here). The mobile wallet must be compatible with cryptocurrency in order to purchase and sell it. One can instantly buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies using a credit or debit card! Many people are already swapping over to Bitcoin ATM machines, with some people opting to look here at the options available.

You have heard of FOREX trading where people make money off trading different currencies, well now sites like Bitcoin Loophole are allowing people to do the same with cryptocurrencies. You can make your btcloophole.app login here if you’re interested. But, this is just the start of cryptocurrency so we don’t know what it could hold for us in the future! Right now, there is a huge interest in investments and trading through cryptocurrencies, with some using the best trading platforms (or die besten Trading Plattformen if you’re German) on the market.

But look, I have no idea if Bitcoin is worth $1,200 per unit. It doesn’t matter, and I’m not an investor. Bitcoin is, however, a disruptive technology that turns computers into digital wallets.

At stake are money-transfer fees. We don’t want to pay them. And the technology exists to cut fees to the bone. Maybe that’s why JP Morgan filed a patent for its own Bitcoin-style payment system. It’s protecting the small revenue stream that will be left.

4. Huge Scandal at the Department of Justice During 2014

Recently, Judge Jed S. Rakoff raised the following question about the financial crisis: Why have no high-level executives been prosecuted? He’s stating, I think, a frustration many Americans feel.

Fish rot from the head down. The DOJ faces huge pressure to go after the big guys. Look at all the energy and court time, for example, that’s gone into chasing senior executives at SAC Capital.

Here’s where the novelist in me takes over. If I create a fictional character with a billion dollars, my guy won’t sit back and wait for the DOJ, SEC, or some other watchdog to run him over.

Forget the lawyers. My billionaire is lashing out. He’s spending boatloads of money on private eyes and hidden cameras. He’s buying off adversaries with hookers or drugs or whatever it takes. He’s probing for weaknesses-everybody has them-and will stop at nothing to protect himself from prosecution. He wants pictures, anything to save his own butt.

Come to think of it-maybe this kind of thing happens in real life?

5. Art Fraud is the New Madoff

We’ve seen those stories about soaring art prices, like the Francis Bacon triptych that sold for $142.4 million. Big-money sales mean investors will chase the art market for their piece of the action.

One problem: The returns are so-so for mid-list works as James Stewart notes in his column, Record Prices Mask a Tepid Market for Fine Art. And when markets cool off or in this case-when reality sets in-that’s when frauds crumble under the weight of their own deception.

I spoke with L. Burke Files recently. He’s a private investigator with Financial Examinations and Evaluations. He said, “Art funds always lose money…investors always lose in an engineered and contrived market.”

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You heard it first on Algonquin Redux, Norb Vonnegut’s Five Predictions for 2014.

Maybe you have predictions of your own? Let’s hear them, by the first Monday after January 1, please.