Usually, there is nothing exciting about economic forecasts issued by banks. In fact, there is probably very little exciting about anything issued by banks. But today this was different - because today the World Economic Forum published a summary of the Deutsche Bank Long-Term Asset Return Study (that in itself sounds super boring… but bear with me!).

What it says? "It feels like we're towards the end of an economic era" (to be transparent, they also rightly say that such era's come and go in long waves). And they are not alone. After the BREXIT vote, Barclays (another bank) and Allianz (an insurance company), said similar things about the global economy. Mohamed El-Erian, the chief economic adviser to Allianz, reportedly talked about a "T-junction" and said "The road we're on is coming to an end".

Now here's why this is important: When the usual suspects from left wing parties challenge the economic system, and NGO's advocate for saving the trees and oceans, that usually goes unnoticed in the noise. But when some of the worlds largest financial services companies say it, IT IS A BIG DEAL!

And the most challenging about it, there's very little we can do - but a lot we can mess up! In the past 35 years, the major drivers of the global economy were globalization (as proven by the increase in international trade over time), and demographic change adding workforce (China and India opening to the global economy, and baby-boomers creating a vast workforce that did not have old people to support and only few children to raise).

This era, which started in the early 80s, is now at a turning point. And the interesting thing is that one of the key drivers is another change in demographics. Despite the fact we're having more people on this planet than ever before, the workforce will grow at a much lower rate in the next decades than it did before. According to Deutsche Bank it is "highly unlikely that the next couple of decades … will see real growth rates returning close to their pre-crisis, pre-leverage era levels."

What that means in layman terms is that our economies are not going to grow much anymore (at least for the foreseeable future) because our workforce is not growing. And this leads to two simple conclusions:

1.) Productivity growth in the past 35 years was mostly driven by the increase in workforce

2.) Even though the past 20 years have blessed us with countless innovations making our lives easier, those are not sufficiently increasing our individual productivity

Even without formal economic education one can see that this is a problem. A lot of our metrics for success are built on growth. Our system (or better, the expectations of participants in that system) heavily relies on growth and we will lack that for the next couple decades. A more sustainable metric for success is needed! Anyone?

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Please share your comments and inputs (via comment function, twitter, e-mail, etc.). In my short write-ups I address topics that I am particularly interested in because they align with my values and beliefs. As such, they are always a reflection of my ideas, thoughts, and opinions. The only thing I am positive in that regard is that I do not have all the perspectives, all the knowledge, or all the facts - help me be better tomorrow.