Innovation, Finance and Economic Movements

According to the Austrian economist J.A. Schumpeter (1883–1950), capitalism is a system that cannot tolerate immobilism, routine; capitalism is not and will never become stationary. Since the eighteenth century and for numerous economists, innovation has lain at the origin of economic growth and social welfare: new technologies, new labour organizational structures, new consumer goods, new communication tools, new needs. Periods of decline follow after periods of economic wealth. Schumpeter established a consistent link (Schumpeter, 1939) between novelty and economic growth. His theory about economic cycles is a source of inspiration for all those economists and politicians who consider that technological progress is the solution to all the evils of capitalism: unemployment, social inequalities, inflation. The watchword is everywhere the same: energies must be freed in order to design new means of enrichment so that, in that context of restructuring, all the social categories will benefit from the situation. For example, information and communication technologies or ‘genetically modified organisms (GMOs)’ may be turned into powerful mechanisms of economic growth. Information and communication technologies encompassing both computers, new worldwide telematic networks (such as the Internet) and industrial automatons have replaced painful and tedious jobs and created new industrial and commercial activities and services.