If you actually look at economy&#x27;s over long time periods they really don&#x27;t have a cycle.  It&#x27;s much closer to a random walk than you might think.  After the fact we simply define periods as good or bad based on what followed them.<p>EX: People talk about Japan as if it was going though a bad time period vs. that just being the new normal based on it&#x27;s demographics.