Thanks for your comment.

I haven’t thought much about the Mayan calendar but I doubt there’ll be any cosmic catastrophe such as the ones that people mention — geomagnetic reversal or large impact. If something good happens that’s great, and I think it will. The last 200 years of historical and macroeconomic trends indicate we should be ramping up to the next Maslow Window near 2015.

BTW, the Panic of 1893 and our recent panic (2008) are 115 years apart: that’s only 3 years greater than 2 economic long waves, assuming the well-documented 56 year cycle is involved. It does suggest that the 1890s have interesting economic and social parallels with our current situation.

It’s certainly true that economic long waves are actually spirals because, for example, advances in technology like the one you mention — the internet — have an important impact on the details of what occurs during any portion of the wave.

However, regardless of what historical or technological circumstances we find ourselves in, rhythmic, twice-per-century upswings in the long wave are always associated with major economic booms which trigger ebullient human explorations and grandiose macro-engineering projects. Outside these Maslow Windows we’re not so lucky; e.g., from the beginning of WW I to the aftermath of WW II, historian Eric Hobsbawm calls it an “Age of Catastrophe.”