If we were to chart our progress on a board, it has ups and downs, but overall it should move upward as we live and learn from our mistakes and failures.
There is no technology visionary at the top of Ebay's organization chart, unless you want to include newly appointed board member and Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen.
For example, the Conference Board in the November 2012 Global Outlook (see chart below) forecasted an annualized growth rate of 2.3% in its base case for the years 2013-208 and a further reduced annualized growth rate projection of 2.0% in its base case for the years 2019-2025, representing a distribution of roughly 18% of overall World output.
The Leading Indicators from the Conference Board declined 0.3% in June, but the long-term chart from their press release shows that both the Leading and Coincident Economic Indexes are still rising, and show no signs of a recession.