![Vince Kellen](/sites/default/files/itjournal/fulltext/2009/03/itj0903a/kellenv.jpg)
The waves of the business cycle are becoming ripples. The recent American combination of minimal inflation and very low unemployment may not be an aberration, but the beginning of a new worldwide trend. Smarter government policy, globalization, changes in employment, advances in information technology, and emerging markets all cushion shocks and dampen the familiar boom and bust.