Sunday, January 14, 2007

Are we at a turning point now?

The Russian economist Kondratieff (1892-1938) , theorised that economies moved in 50- to 60-year cycles with periods of high growth followed by periods of slower growth, with each cycle driven by a bunch of technical innovations. It has been called the "Kondratieff waves" or the K-Waves.

The first wave of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century was , followed by the Age of Steam and Railways (1830s), the Age of Steel, Electricity and Heavy Engineering (1870s), the Age of Oil, the Automobile and Mass Production (1900s) and finally, the Age of Information and Telecommunications (1970s).

According to this theory, we are currently at the turning-point of the fifth Kondratieff wave.

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