Prepare for a New Supercycle of Innovation
Adverse events usually flow from a world financial crisis: unemployment, political turmoil and geopolitical reordering. We’ve seen these since the crash of 2008.
But there are benefits as well. Crashes are usually followed by massive economic reorganization, spectacular outbursts of innovation, the creation of new industries, increased productivity, and decades of high growth. We have not seen these benefits since the crash of 2008. Thankfully, this is about to change.
The 1930s, remembered mostly for the Great Depression, were also a time of great technological progress—jet engines, television, synthetic materials, even early computers. Other periods of economic stress, such as the 1970s, led to a similar explosion in innovation.
A decade past the worst crisis in recent memory, we’ve seen few of these benefits. The good news is that we are about to. The American economy is poised to embark on an innovation boom of historic proportions that will undermine incumbent players, transform everyday life, and make some alert investors very rich.
wsj.com
|
