In 1940s, Edward R. Dewey hypothesized, that the tallest buildings are usually completed after significant market peaks. Now, 74 years later, this hypothesis is a good addition to the socionomic theory. The new science of Socionomics, founded by Robert Prechter Jr. in 1979, postulates that social mood drives financial, macroeconomic, political and social behavior, in contrast to the conventional understanding that such events drive social mood. The best tool to register social mood is the market through its charts. Optimistic and happy people buy, while pessimistic, angry or afraid people sell. So each chart is nothing more, than an illustration of the psychological condition of the masses at any given moment. In the Market, extreme optimism results in price bubbles. One of the real-life manifestations of extremely positive social mood is the construction of enormous buildings. But optimism is never an infinite state. When it is over the market reverses. That is why the record buildings, which have been under construction, when the last top was forming, are usually opened during times of crisis, when the illusions for eternal prosperity are destroyed long time ago. Of course, some of them are never opened at all. We will support this hypothesis with some examples.
The “Singer” building, 187 meters tall, was finished in 1908, right after The Panic of 1907
“Metropolitan Life, 247 meters, opened in 1909, two years after The Panic of 1907
“40 Wall Street”, 283 meters high, completed in 1929, the first years of The Great Depression
“Chrysler” building, 319 meters, opened for public in 1929 as well.
“Empire State”, 443 meters tall, opened doors in 1931, the third year of The Great Depression
The World Trade Center with its 526 meters was finished in 1973 during the Stagflation from 1970s
“Sears Tower”, 527 meters, opened in 1974, also during the ’70s Stagflation
“Taipei 101”, 509 meters, opened in 2004 as a result of the Tech Bubble
“Burj Khalifa”, 828 meters high, opened in 2008, in the middle of The Great Recession of 2007-2009
The advance in the stock market from 2002 to 2007 brought announcements of impressive construction projects around the world. But since the bear market resumed in 2007, global social mood has gone from positive to negative and those same projects experienced massive cutbacks, delays and even cancellation.
The developers of Saudi Arabia’s Mile-High Tower have put their project on hold. Here we are few years later in 2014 at the top of a ‘’B’’ wave of Supercycle degree.
Kingdom Tower previously known as Mile-High Tower, is a super tall skyscraper approved for construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. If completed as planned, the tower will reach unprecedented heights, becoming the tallest building in the world, as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometer mark. The tower was initially planned to be 1.6-kilometer (1 mile) high. However, the geography of the area proved unsuitable for a tower that large.
By the bottom of a major bear market, the very idea of a mile-high skyscraper will be the subject of mockery.
Charts by Socionomics institute and Elliottwave International:
http://www.elliottwave.com/
http://www.socionomics.net/
