CHICAGO-BASED Joel Stern heads one of the largest global corporate consultancies, Stern Stewart, and is therefore a recognised expert on the likely behaviour of the world's biggest companies. He has come to Australia to warn about what might happen in the US next year. Last October (The Weekend Australian, October 18) he predicted incredibly accurately the huge rise in 2004 US productivity and profits (profits look like achieving a real rise of about 19 per cent); a substantial rise in US employment; and US growth rates of between 4.5 and 5.5 per cent. His latest predictions are frightening. Stern says...