Beyond the crisis

The current economic crisis marks the end of an era, and the start of a new one. It is the fifth major crisis in 200 years' time. All of them occurred at the transition from one era to the next. The 1930s may have been a time of deep economic crisis and mass unemployment, yet in those days the Kennedys made their fortunes, art deco was born and the radio, car, and telephone grew to be so much in demand that great new industries emerged out of the ashes of the crisis. During the major economic crisis of the 1980s the personal computer, mobile phone and Internet were born and developed into major new industries. During the current crisis we say goodbye to the 20th century and transit into the new, post-material economy with new economic pillars and the mixture with digital collaboration powered by ''cloud computing,'' the next generation Internet. We say hello to a new era, with China as the new global powerhouse instead of the U.S., with globalization turning into slowbalization, with less wealth and more focus on the economy of happiness.