(Joseph Schumpeter inspired John Burr Williams to write about intrinsic value.)

 

      The central point is that capitalism can only be understood as an evolutionary process of continuous innovation and “creative destruction.”

 

From Schumpter’s Theory of Economic Development: “Excluding any innovations and innovative activities, we have a stationary start. The hero to the stationary state is the entrepreneur who disturbs the equilibrium and is the prime cause of economic development.”

 

     Schumpeter recognized four main cycles: Kondratiev (45-60 yrs), Kuznets (15-25 yrs), Juglar (7-11 yrs) and Kitchin (3-5 yrs).

 

      Added together, the cycles create a composite “waveform” ̶ a Grand Super Cycle of 70 years or more. These cycles occur simultaneously with one rising while the others are declining. If all cycles decline at the same time, the result is disastrous slumps and depressions.