WE BEGIN our 11th year of webcasting with a look at some of the issues we believe the world will confront in 2015. Of course, it doesn’t take much imagination to predict more turmoil in the Middle East. We also discuss Ebola, economics and the price of oil, and the continued conflict between the Islamic State and anyone who stands in the way of their dream of a restored caliphate.
AS WE approach Halloween, events in the news are becoming even more frightening than a well-produced haunted house: Another doctor tests positive for Ebola, and top scientists suggest that mutations are making the virus more contagious than in the past. Are things really that bad or does somebody want us to, like the announcer says, be afraid — be very afraid?
THE EBOLA outbreak continues to spread. A health care worker in Dallas has tested positive for the virus, and a clinic in Boston reports that a patient who just returned from Liberia has been taken to a hospital. Over 4,000 are dead in west Africa, and that number may be low.