Good question. My understanding tis that the possiblle hiatus is forecast to be around the end of this decade. In communications we rely on smaller line width, currently at 0.13 microns in newer ICs to give us faster processors at lower power. Heat dissapation is always a problem. Smaller line width lets you put more stuff in an IC (goes as the square) and helps solve the pesky IC interconnect problem. Too many pins and mongo capacitance. Stuff running outside requires more drive (power) and tends to be slower.

Applications that require continued Moores Law:
* Real hi-bandwidth video, cheap & small
* CAD CAM & simulations
* Robotics, vision and AI style problem solving
* Protein modeling and other next-gen biotek opportunities

If ckt progress slowed it could affect the economy negatively in that new innovations (usually profitable) would slow down and new job creation would slow.

-p