Interesting... I've read a lot of comments from various places online, from folks who have a feeling of dread that "something" big (and bad) is coming. A lot of them can't articulate it any further than that, and some of them point to the economic, political, or other issues plaguing the world, tending to focus on one area over others. Some are moved to prepare for it, some aren't, some aren't sure what to do. But it seems like a lot of people have that feeling.
This may be what's coming, or it may be something else. That's the problem with forecasting the future, it's really difficult to get it right. 
I had the sense that something was unfathomably
WRONG, on a cosmic scale, just a month or two before Obama was elected. I'm not normally given to such 'feelings', I'm a scientist and a skeptic about such. I just can't describe it any other way. I paid off my bills and debts, put money and trade goods away, stocked the larder, and always keep my gas tanks in the six vehicles I have on the pavement full. There are a few extra gallons of fuel around. It wasn't that I haven't been a little bit of a prepper all along, working in remote areas and relying on my own resources on occasion to survive, but this was different. Having a house fire in the middle of all that was a mite disruptive, and thankfully we've mostly recovered from that.
The one thing about forecasting the future, is you can't.
You can go by past trends with some things, which had me pack away enough resources to survive without income while we had an oil boom (knowing a 'bust' follows), but even that has its limits. Some of those resources have been consumed in the recovery from the fire, some are being used to get by, and others persist. That fire hammered home that no matter what you do, you have to have backup plans for your backup plans, and even at the very good money I was making at the time, there is a definite limit to what you can prepare for, provided it is even survivable.
For all I know, The Almighty is having me build a cache of supplies and tools for someone I don't even know, to be found years from now, to enable them to build upon the ashes.
We don't know what the future will bring, but I reckon we're going to find out.