We may conceivably conclude from that vantage point that, at the turn of the millennium, the American economy was experiencing a once-in-a-century acceleration of innovation, which propelled forward productivity, output, corporate profits, and stock prices at a pace not seen in generations, if ever.
The issues are: Does a cycle necessarily involve a recession, and are there characteristics of the current cycle that make it different to its predecessors? I think these can be answered together. The current international cycle is different to its predecessors in one extremely important respect – the expansion phase did not culminate in an excessive rise in inflation.