If Economic Cycle Theorists Are Correct, 2015 To 2020 Will Be Pure Hell For The United StatesMichael Snyder Many mainstream economists want nothing to do with economic cycle theorists, but it should be noted that economic cycle theories have enabled some analysts to correctly predict the timing of recessions, stock market peaks and stock market crashes over the past couple of decades. Of course none of the theories discussed below is perfect, but it is very interesting to note that all of them seem to indicate that the U.S. economy is about to enter a major downturn. So will the period of 2015 to 2020 turn out to be pure hell for the United States? We will just have to wait and see. One of the most prominent economic cycle theories is known as the Kondratieff wave. It was developed by a Russian economist named Nikolai Kondratiev, and asWikipedia has noted, his economic theories got him into so much trouble with the Russian government that he was eventually executed because of them Increasingly economic academia has come to realize the brilliant insight of Nikolai Kondratiev and accordingly there have been many reports, articles, theses and books written on the subject of this cyclical phenomenon. An influential essay, written by Professor W. Thompson of Indiana University, has indicated that K waves have influenced world technological development since the 900s. His thesis states that modern economic development commenced in 930AD in the Sung province of China and he propounds that since this date there have been 18 K waves lasting on average 60 years. So what does the Kondratieff wave theory suggest is coming next for us? Well, according to work done by Professor W. Thompson of Indiana University, we are heading into an economic depression that should last until about the year 2020 But of course the Kondratieff wave is far from the only economic cycle theory that indicates that we are heading for an economic depression. The economic cycle theories of author Harry Dent also predict that we are on the verge of massive economic problems. He mainly focuses on demographics, and the fact that our population is rapidly getting older is a major issue for him. The following is an excerpt from a Business Insider article that summarizes the major points that Dent makes in his new book According to Dent, You need to prepare for that crisis, which will occur between 2014 and 2023, with the worst likely starting in 2014 and continuing off and on into late 2019. So just like the Kondratieff wave, Dents work indicates that we are going to experience a major economic crisis by the end of this decade. Another economic cycle theory that people are paying more attention to these days is the relationship between sun spot cycles and the stock market. It turns out that market peaks often line up very closely with peaks in sun spot activity. This is a theory that was first popularized by an English economist named William Stanley Jevons. Sun spot activity appears to have peaked in early 2014 and is projected to decline for the rest of the decade. If historical trends hold up, that is a very troubling sign for the stock market. And of course there are many, many other economic cycle theories that seem to indicate that trouble is ahead for the United States as well. The following is a summary of some of them from an article by GE Christenson and Taki Tsaklanos So does history repeat itself? Well, it should be disconcerting to a lot of people that 2014 is turning out to be eerily similar to 2007. But we never learned the lessons that we should have learned from the last major economic crisis, and most Americans are way too apathetic to notice that we are making many of the very same mistakes all over again. And in recent months there have been a whole host of indications that the next major economic downturn is just around the corner. For example, just this week we learned that manufacturing job openings have declined for four months in a row. For many more indicators like this, please see my previous article entitled 17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine. Lets hope that all of the economic cycle theories discussed above are wrong this time, but we would be quite foolish to ignore their warnings. Everything indicates that a great economic storm is rapidly approaching, and we should use this time of relative calm to get prepared while we still can. This article first appeared here at the Economic Collapse Blog. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here. 