Dmitri Kondratiev has given his name to business cycles. We call the ups and downs "Kondratiev Waves." Other economists have studied the field but Kondratiev made it his career and paid for his dedication with his life, landing on one of Stalin's many lists as individuals to be executed, in his case in the year 1938.
The existence of the business cycle is interwoven with the lives of the Doran family. Robinson Doran has retired from a professorship in economics and in a precipitous fashion moves to the country to take up farming. He believes that life as we have known it is coming to an end. Economic life, that is.
Robinson's wife, Rose, refuses to move to the country. She takes up with a widower out of loneliness. Their son, Stanton, loses his job on the newspaper but slowly rebuilds his life. Their daughter, Harriet, a medical doctor, saves lives through it all. There is a romantic interest, who happens on Robinson at his farm, providing him company and gardening skills.
A new tax code to replace the current one is provided by Robinson and Stanton. The national debt is analyzed. Life in the United States returns to normal after a long decade.
The business cycle is never repealed, its place made secure by the vagaries of human beings. Kondratiev lives on.