There are many mistakes people make that ensure they won’t get rich investing. In 2011, I think one in particular mistake will hurt more than others. I can sum it up by citing the phrase, “Generals fighting the last war.”

The year 2011 is the year when inflation will play the role of wrecking ball. It seems to threaten everything from emerging markets to the pretty earnings narrative of the market as a whole. I use the term “inflation” here as the man on the street does. It is when prices for most everything go up. It is not the best definition, because it obscures the reason why prices for most everything go up in the first place. The reason is that governments everywhere can’t help but print lots of money. But let us not wander off course. It is what it is.

“US Crop Stock Forecasts Deepen Fears of Food Crisis” read a recent Financial Times headline. The US government cut its estimate for key crops. This came only a week after the UN warned the world faces “food price shock.” Corn and soybean prices jumped and now sit at 30-month highs. Inventories are very tight. Corn is up 94% since June!

The New Year invites guesses about the year ahead. I thought I wouldn’t bother this year, but then I found myself scribbling out some investment resolutions and predictions on a napkin over breakfast. Here are some of them:

Markets make opinions, the old saying goes. So it is hard to maintain old views on Africa as a place to avoid in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. A few snapshot images from the past few weeks should help you think differently about the continent.

Inflation is on everyone’s lips these days…everyone in Asia, that is. Because Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke is so busy pumping up the US money supply to battle a perceived deflationary threat here at home, he is putting pressure on overseas economies to print money at the same pace, in order to prevent their currencies from appreciating against the dollar and, thereby, become less “competitive.”

The deflationists argue that the dollar will buy more tomorrow than it does today. It is inflation’s opposite. When most people talk about inflation and deflation, this is what they mean. This definition would pain the old economists who were more careful in their use of language.

Last month, China cut its shipments of rare earth exports to Japan. China and Japan have a maritime spat going on and this ban is probably fallout from that. In any event, the ban alarmed Japanese manufacturers who depend on China for rare earths.