When I make public presentations, I end my comments with a common characteristic of all major economic expansions: a new technology, industry or societal shift which fundamentally alters our lives and how we conduct business. Many of longest, strongest expansions had a number of these revolutionary changes occurring at the same time. I point out some of the more obvious: the Internet and software revolutions of the 1990s coinciding with the Baby Boomer generation hitting its peak spending years. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Eisenhower interstate system precipitated a migration to the suburbs, which coincided with massive changes in communications and transportation, i.e., jet aircraft, television, satellite technology, etc.
But what is going to propel our economy in the decades to come? What will be the seismic shift that requires the build out of significant new capacity? What will fundamentally change our lives and how we conduct business? …Read On…